Wish I had that one, really do, but then it will grow big and shade more of the yard, and then I couldn't plant more irises.....
So I must sacrifice my desire to have the maple.

They're supposed to be smaller, but I don't know the ultimate size.. I will ask the Variegation King when I see him tomorrow.. He'll know. There's a rubrum cross that I've considered getting called 'October Glory' that has tremendous fall color (Red, red red!) and it doesn't get too big.

I adore JMs but am afraid to try them here. It is so hot and sunny and they are so expensive!!

JM's do very well here but yes, they are expensive. I need to get our night digging task force to join me in an expedition to Duke Garden's Japanese garden section. They have so many it would be a while before they noticed one or two are missing... And some of the JI iris too.......

The one above is not a Japanese Maple. It's a Red Maple. I don't know how they do in the heat.. a lot of variegated forms are notorious for burning in heat.
With Japanese Maples, generally, the lacier the leaf, the more prone to burning. I grow a variegated form called 'Orido Nishiki' that's pretty darned tough... No water for the past 2 years, and mostly in sun. At my last house I had 'Butterfly' which did pretty well in part shade. I've got Verticillium in the soil, and have lost a couple of fancier ones to it, which breaks my heart.. One of my favorite trees, so I have to be content with the couple that are in the ground (and keep my fingers crossed that they are somehow resistant). If I can keep the chickens away from them, I'm thinking of trying some PCI's under the Wisteria and Maple.. They can tolerate a bit of drought when established..

My 3 20 yr. old Japanese maples have survived the drought with very little water.
...and we had some rain this morning - about an hour's worth so far.

Jan, you got more rain than we did. It rained for less than an hour here, but the good news was even a little bit of rain was better than none at all.

Very sad here as I have not had my photos from convention developed.

Carl -
Were you at the Spring Regional in Visalia this weekend?

No, we skipped the Fall Regional this year. We usually just go to the Spring Regional because of the garden tours. Very rarely are there garden tours at a Fall Regional. I don't get excited about the business meeting and I don't do judges training.

The Oregon Gardens is an 80 acre garden set up to display what the nurseries of Oregon produce and sell.
A lot of the annuals are not labeled. The trees on the other hand are well labeled. And they have all kinds of trees.
We tended to be more interested in the iris. The area we walked through had lots of water features and had lots of water lilies.
I laevigata and I siberica were also well represented.




5




10


Not everything was correctly labeled.

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25




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35




40

Oohhhh eye candy in the dead of winter, thank you Carl!!

Yep, pretty much. And you are more than welcome. I might put up my photos from the Siberian Iris convention. But there are a lot more of those. I'm lazy right now but it's cold out for us Californians lately. A good reason to stay on the computer.

Chad Harris's Mt Pleasant Iris Farm

AMAZING photography Carl, thank you so very much from sharing your pictures with us.

Great pics Carl, thanks for sharing! And I'm looking forward to the Sib convention photos!

That is a beautiful combination of colors they planted together in that shot of tall bearded iris. And such a beautiful setting for the Japanese iris (9th pic). Thanks for posting all the lovely pictures Carl!

As a side note - the Sarah P. Duke Gardens have a mislabeling problem too. Except for the trees. They must have gone to the same school for labeling!

Wonderful photographs -- eye-candy for sure!!

That bearded iris grouping is gorgeous, I keep going back to it. And the Iris with magenta standards and peach falls is really unusual and beautiful! Does that one look familiar to any of you?

http://garden.org/pics/2015-12...

Lovely photos, Carl!