Mary ...

Ah ... Thank you. The site up on the slope is under pine trees. They would get morning sun because the trees have been limbed for fire protection.

Normally, things are not as hot and dry up here, but with the drought and the State taking most of the water out of our lake, temps are running about ten degrees hotter than the norm.

I'd love to try one. I do like irises, it's just that the tall bearded irises don't work down in the primary gardening area of my property.

The irises that I am passing along to you were planted by Mrs. J, the previous owner of this house.

Smiles,
Lyn

There are other members of the iris family besides tall bearded. they are just the most spectacular.

Lucy ...

I do think they are beautiful. It's just that they don't work in this garden. I am a rose addict and the whole garden has been built around roses.

This is my first in-ground garden and I've had a lot to learn. I almost destroyed this rose by planting the irises in the wrong place.



Mrs. J had some irises sited at the top of the slope and they couldn't be seen unless I was working up there. They only grew about a foot tall, so I thought the must be dwarf irises. Oops !

I did move the irises and did a rejuvenation prune on the rose so that it now has foliage down to the ground again.

I'd much rather pass along Mrs. J's irises to someone who really wants them than to keep them on my I'll-get-to-them-list.

I love my Dutch irises ... and have sited them in the wrong place, too and need to move them.

Smiles,
Lyn

Well -- I guess so -- but that Iris sure looks pretty snuggled in there amongst the rose blossoms!!!

Yeah ... it did. I liked the look, but it was sure hard on the rose ...

It's a great rose in that it requires no TLC and it's thornless ...

Smiles,
Lyn

oooooh -- thornless -- that's the best kind!!!

Except for the "old fashioned" ones....they call them "Seven Sisters Roses", around here, I can't grow a rose to save my life ! I tried again (after many, many failures ,over the years!) to grow one (a climber) last year.....bought a nice ,healthy looking potted one at a local nursery.....followed all their 'advice' as to planting, and "winter protection"......I guess I'll plant a clematis there, since the trellis can't be used by a dead rose

Arlyn ...

You probably think irises are easy to grow because you know about them. I am planning to plant my first clematis next year and have a great fear of failure because it's outside of my comfort zone and just I know I am going to kill it.

I could help you if you really want to grow a rose in your garden, just as people on this forum would be more than willing to help me find the right irises to grow in this garden. That's one of the things I like about ATP.

There are a lot of roses that are cane hardy in your zone that need little winter protection. A lot of the instructions and advice given about growing roses is archaic and make growing roses harder than it needs to be. I think that may be true for other plants, too.

I think Lucy is right that there are a lot of other irises that I don't even know about that may do well in this garden. I have a lot to learn about them.

The same is true for roses. There are a lot of different classes of roses that grow well in your climate that you may not even know about.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lucy I bought a book on irises from Schreiners in my last order, wow you are right about lots of other irises. Some even are from the desert. I then went and bought some seeds of various species to try. Right now I am growing out some little Iris foetidissima lutea (or citrina or other names that might possibly be the same but mean yellow. I had bought some plants from Aitken's Salmon Creek Garden a few years ago. In the package they included some cut off seed pods (these iris are grown for the red berried seedpods). These ones are apparently from a North African location, I figured that would be really dry- I winter-sowed them. The second year they finally sprouted during the winter, and I have some baby plants I am babying in , of course, dry shade. We shall see.

Good Luck! Terry & Barbara will be quite willing to answer questions.