Lilli, doesn't Tempo Two ship between February and April? If so, I'd go for the later shipping date and plant them in the garden. I don't really understand the frost warning, when planted in fall they're going to get frost some weeks after planting. Perhaps frost on a newly planted rhizome is particularly damaging?

Neal, it could also be that the plants would not have had time to get acclimated to the cooler weather. I think Australia is pretty warm year round so a frost could be quite a shock to the newly transplanted rhizomes.

When I got mine it was in early April, I potted them up and put them out during the day and in at night until it was warmer. Then put them in the ground and they did fine. Keith Keppel told me I could have just planted them outside and they would have been fine that's what he does.

We are colder than Keith. Our Tempo Two have come in April & planted in the garden with no problem. We are NE of Boston, but near the ocean.

OK then...there goes that theory! It's so nice to have such a wonderful group with such a wide range experience. I tip my hat to the Australian import experts...Tom and Lucy!

Last year Barry shipped the US rhizomes earlier than the European ones - he explained that it was because of later frosts in parts of Europe. Makes sense to me.

gemini_sage said:Lilli, doesn't Tempo Two ship between February and April? If so, I'd go for the later shipping date and plant them in the garden. I don't really understand the frost warning, when planted in fall they're going to get frost some weeks after planting. Perhaps frost on a newly planted rhizome is particularly damaging?

Yes Neal, as I understand it, they ship to Europe and other cold countries in April and to warmer places in February.
The frost warning is because the rhizomes are used to Australian heat (our winter is their summer) and they are likely to really suffer from a late frost and where I live, we can get those well into May. The irises we plant in the fall do not usually have to turn their seasons completely around, so I guess that makes them less fragile - but even then it is my experience that rhizomes planted in late summer do better than those planted in late fall?

Edited to add: I was thinking of just planting them out, because it would be easier and irises are tough, but then I really want them to not just survive, but to thrive and if potting them up is likely to help, that is what I'll do. After all, one advantage of not having 100s of irises, is that I can spend more time pampering the ones I have.

I haven't been doing much outside. I spend a LOT of time at work, either working or catching up on movies. Today, I was doing a bit of clean-up and found Starship with a stalk. I still have a bunch of grass to pull and not enough time. I may have to resort to Gras-B-Gon.

Patched some dig holes near rhizomes and placed rocks over others for squirrel. Also using a trap out there with cheese and a apple in it.

Apples work pretty well for squirrels, REAL well for coons and skunks, and *fair* for rabbits. #1 bait for squirrels, here, is peanuts...in the shell P.S. They also seem to attract bluejays

I placedon't peanut butter on a cheese it too. They're all welcome to join at once.

Zencat said:I haven't been doing much outside. I spend a LOT of time at work, either working or catching up on movies. Today, I was doing a bit of clean-up and found Starship with a stalk. I still have a bunch of grass to pull and not enough time. I may have to resort to Gras-B-Gon.

I didn't know it was a rebloomer!

It isn't listed as a RE. It didn't bloom this spring but I had another stalk last month.

From the 2012 Checklist of Reblooming Iris;
"Starship E-L, &Re. Reported Rebloom in; AZ, CA,ID, MD,MO,NC,OH,OK, SC, TN, TX,UT,VA, Netherlands USDA Zone 5,6,7,8,9

I've sent out 70+/- boxes this year.

That's a lot of Boxing Rob, Does that make you a Boxer? Maybe a Boxee?

I just put out some Preen since it's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow.

me too, but what we got was .004 of an inch of rain 😕

I'd be glad if all we got would be .004 of an inch of rain. It's not raining now, just misting a bit, but more coming later, guess it's a good day to do some house cleaning.

Have been trimming grass around the edges of my beds - still more to be done! Also planted more corms and bulbs and have more of those to do as well. Read on a bulb site somewhere that it was a good idea not to plant tulip bulbs until November in my zone, because by then the soil is too cold for the fungi which can attack the bulbs to grow... Made me feel much better about not being done, so I really hope that is true!

Iris-wise, I still have seeds to sow...