I gave up on color combining beardeds and stuck them mostly together with dashes and dots of color around the big beds.

We have 4 beds for lining out seedlings & 4 longer beds combining seedlings & introduced plants. Other older bed are scattered around & still have irise as shade permits. When you work with hybridizing you have to be able to reach the plants. The famous Schreiner display beds have the lupines, Cal. poppies etc. I wish we could grow lupine like that. Their working beds are elsewhere.

Yes thats pretty much what I did with some un named ones that came without lables.
Darks against lights and vise-versa

This has nothing to do with Iris but This was my GD's cat. She died Sat. Aug 13. stroked out. I wasnt as close to her and am not really "inLove "with animals.I'm just too old and crusty to go soft on pets. This cat was quiet,sneeky,dark and bitchy but a great mouser.

The devotion to specific plants is evident from photos here. It just amazes me.

We have to grow favorites in the garden. Both John & I have been iris growers for many yrs. As I'm sure you know by now, we like the medians. He does a lot more with species, especially I. pumila which are so early in the spring. We also have I. aphylla around. Glad that you have found the smaller irises for your garden. Tall berded are lovely but sometimes difficult to fit in a garden scheme with limited space. Your photo taking is great. Not so great here but my problem is getting them into the computer which is another ball of wax.

I am trying to fit mostly medians. I just have a THING about plants that flop.

I love the SDBs however for something later the intermediates are great plants with a strong growth habit. You might want to look at MTBs as well. They are both diploid & tetraploid although the flowers get to large for my taste. Look up 'Bangles' in plant files & see if there is a picture. It has a lovely little flower. Do you have any siberians? They are getting brand new colors rather than just blues & purples.

I do have sibes. OMG new colors?
The intermediats that I ordered from Mid America are new.I also hasd an order from Dee.
It never occured to me the flowers would be large.
Sometimes bigger isnt better. Where can I see new siberian colors?

JoePye Weeds garden. I am sure that Polly has some as well. www.jpwflowers.com

Boojum posted some of her newest acquisitions from Joe Pye Weed's. Check out the 2011 intros. http://www.jpwflowers.com/intr... Cream of Tomato, Sweeter Still? Sibs don't come in these colors.

"NEW" colors on Siberians? I want to seeee!

Never ever occurred to me that anyone could possibly not love huge iris flowers. Oh My. Bigger is better. Bigger, bolder, more flounces, ruffles, horns, beards, I want something I can see from way across the pond.
Having said that, I do have a great collection of SDBs. They make a great border in front of my daylily and shrub beds.
I wish I had gone to the Median conference in OKC this year. I've seen Hugh Stout's iris a few times, but not when medians were blooming. I don't have many of those.
Pseudacorus and LAs do well here, as do Siberians. Ensatas are kind of tricky but I had a few bloom this year before the soil got so dang hot. One of the guys in our club hybridizes Arils, so I'm trying some of those.

You don't have to do the JPWeed introductions only. The older irises are more in many people's budget. Still many good new colors in those.

Just checked JPW its is really great. Some of the creams and peaches are lovely. I planted Simplicity and Elegance this spring.

Our daughter likes 'So Van Gogh' & 'Here Be Dragons'. I think that 'White Amber' is nice. Marty has really chased the color genetics. They surprise him.

I downloaded some favorites from JPW and So vanGogh was one of them and Pomegranit.I also found the photos on his website to be really dark so I photoshopped the ones I have.

I just love So Van Gogh. And it's, of course, the slowest growing sib I've ever had. But, it's just beautiful.

Good to know Polly

Hi folks: Just trying to catch up on reading some of the forums and thought I needed to ask if someone could direct me to the following iris grower's websites. What is the name of the following growers sites: Joe Ghio, Keith Keppel,Tom Burseen and how does one learn about mama jack's kitty 13 iris co-op? New, still learning my way around. Is it to late to order from these places? Thank You

Joe Ghio doesn't have a website, but you can see pictures of his introductions through the Monterey Bay Iris Society's website:
http://www.montereybayiris.org...

Keith Keppel now has a website:
http://www.keithkeppeliris.com...

And here is the address I have for Tom Burseen's Interstellar Gardens.
http://interstellargardens.com...

Thank you! Those are great links!