You would win that bet ,Sherry ! This years list...not quite half grow in my beds, but, the further back I look in the AIS bulletin library....the % REALLY starts going up !....Arlyn

Then there are those of us who do medians instead of talls. We do have a few TBs, no longer grow Immortality--took it to our sale for people who have never had a fall bloomer. it is very reliable here.

Seems like many of you have gotten rid of, or do not want Immortality. Is there something I should know about it? Mine had one bloom this year but is increasing to beat the band.

When it comes to iris (or most anything else, I guess!) personal likes / dis-likes tend to govern what we have in our gardens, and rightly so. Immortality suffers the poor branching, and form of many of the earlier remonants.so it doesn't make the best 'garden subject". Personally, the "bullet proof" nature of the older re bloomers is as important to me as the possible re bloom. In my climate, at least, Immortality, Earl Of Essex, and others from that "time frame" stand up so well against borer, rot, and even leaf spot, that they will always have a place in my beds......Arlyn

Standing up to rot and leaf spot are big winners in my book too!

And explains my garden somewhat. I am still very hesitant to buy a new introduction at $35-$50 bucks a pop when I have no idea how well it will grow in my garden. I would probably over mother it. I need more years of growing before I feel confident that (most) any iris will do well in my gardens. Also, until this year, most of my iris came from Schreiners, so this is my first real experience with smaller rhizomes and how they will do (I was averaging 80% bloom on first years from Schreiners).

On the other hand I am learning that not all Dyke's Winners like heat (Edith Wolford that is you), so I am curious if it will ever bloom for me.

Here I have always got nearly 100% bloom first year with iris from Keppel, Ghio. Superstition, and Mid-America. Also bloom with medians from Salmon Creek.

Good to know, especially on Salmon Creek.

Edith Wolford did not do well for me. She did not like the heat and I don't think anyone I know locally is growing it either. I tried to grow EW for years and Beverly Sills as they are so tried and true. I finally gave up. If I get them as a bonus or in a trade I will try them in a cooler place in the garden.

I doubt with higher heat, humidity & clay I could ever claim 100% bloom. The average is 70% or somesuch. If Edith doesn't bloom again this year I may try her in partial shade.

Edith is a slow grower here, and I hear that's pretty much the way she is. Beverly grows fine, but when ever I move her, she pouts for a couple years before she blooms. I don't think she likes change.

Beverly remains well liked here although there are many newer pinks to choose from. I don't know any of my friends who still grow Edith. I don't.

Just because an iris wins the Dykes medal means it is a "good" grower or is a strong specimen. Two come immediately to mind as not great at all; Edith Wolford and Kilt Lilt. I keep trying to grow them because they won the award (never had Kilt Lilt but am looking forward to it). I am on my third try with Edith.

In this climate Kilt Lilt is known as Killed Lilt.

I wonder if it would grow here? Perhaps it would like this heat.

I have found it's quite a chore to acquire all the Dyke's winners, and I think it's because of what we're talking about here.....some are just NOT good growers, at least in some fairly large areas of the country.............Arlyn

I have a good amount of the most recent Dykes medal winners in my collection. I am missing the most recent two (2014 Dividing Line & 2013 That's All Folks) but have everything else from 2012 to 1988. I am missing Song of Norway, Ruffled Ballet, & Mystique. Then starting with 1977's Dream Lover I am missing everything except for:

1971 Debby Rairdon
1968 Stepping Out
1965 Pacific panorama
1950 Blue Rhythm
1948 Ola Kala
1940 Wabash
1927 San Francisco

I am actively looking for Song of Norway and Kilt Lilt. I have skipped getting some of the missing Dykes in favor of other cultivars on my want list in the past and expect to do so in the future. Just don't have the room (if I keep saying it will be true)

Kilt Lilt is an attractive flower. Bonnie, if you get it, would you keep me posted on how it does?

Greg, brettbarney73 has Song of Norway on his trades list.

I have Mystique. It's a good grower and reliable bloomer.

Kilt Lilt is an interesting iris, sort of a throwback in some ways (brownish plicatas were a lot more common a few decades earlier) and ahead of its time in others (a degree of ruffling and substance that weren't often seen in the early 70's). I don't grow it, but see it pretty often in other gardens around here. Seems to grow well.

As your lovely photographs show. They are as much enablers as are Brad's photographs.