Well, that was fun! Robin & Julie sure put some very nice rhizomes up for auction. And they are so kind and generous. They offered quite a few Blyth varieties and at a great price.

I thought it would be fun to list what each of us got. I now have;

1) Astrobubbles
2) Coffee Shop
3) Heaven's Reply
4) Ambertime
5) Stars Turn Out
6) Started With a Kiss
7) Honeydripper
8) Alpine Butterfly
9) Art School

I won the first 3, the rest were bonus.

Wow! Great deal with all those bonuses!

Nice set of bonuses. We need pictures!!

Holy moly, those are some kind of bonuses!

I should get my box from them tomorrow and will list everything when received.

Pictures;

Coffee Shop, not yet potted



The rest of them, potted;






I have never potted an iris over the winter. I was inspired by Gabriel.

Question, what happens when they get root bound??

They will have a nice set of roots by spring, so just pop them in the ground after you have no more frost. If they get really root bound over the winter I would transfer them to a larger pot, but try not to disturb the roots too much.

I only went for First Avenue, and got Art School as a bonus. My pics are on the Iris Sisters bidding thread.

Wow John! Good haul! I am going to try and overwinter some in pots this year too for the first time. I was all done ordering/planting/looking (ok, not looking) and was out of space in the garden but was inspired by Gabriel to try it as well. I think he's a bad influence! I ordered 20 more because of him. We'll see what happens. The ones in the ground are still covered in snow from that last storm we had.

But where do you put the pots that have Irises planted in them????

Mary Ann. Outside for now. When the real cold air comes, I'll bring them into the old garage (now my studio). Many days here in KC during winter are above 32 so they should be outdoors quite a bit. I only have 15 potted and they are in boxes so I can move them around.

Having never done this, we shall see how it turns out. If all goes well, I don't even want to think about next year's Iris Sisters end-of-season sales!! Gabriel and I can compete for most pots!

Darcy, saw your pictures of the snow. Nice. Guess we will see next Spring how well we learned from the folks here. The good thing is iris are a heardy bunch, minus 'The Rot'.

Mary Ann - mine will stay outside. If we get an ice storm I will bring them into the basement, but otherwise we are usually not too cold for them.

I got a late gift from someone. It was a mother rhizome, totally rotted, with two nice increases -- rotted where they joined the mother. I cut off all the bad stuff, and have left the two increases to dry and heal over. Now I'm not sure what to do with them..............

I pot little ones like that and keep them in the house for the winter.

Put them in a pot/pots. Have a piece of bubble wrap you could tape around the pot? Leave it in a sunny area sheltered from the wind. Or, with all the work on Iris Lane, is there a section of loosened soil large enough to sink the pot? Then you can mulch it over.

Think Tom overwinters some in pots?
@tveguy3

I've only done that once with Awesome Alex. I got it late and didn't have a place for it, so I just left it in the pot. It survived, but didn't thrive. I planted it the next spring, and a year later it bloomed, and has been going ever since. I don't really do much potting, except for starting seedling, or unless I order from Australia.

I've only ever potted up one Iris -- a rhizome of Swazi Princess that I found frost-heaved out of the ground last winter. I kept it in the house -- and it languished and then died. I don't know what I did wrong -- I don't know if I did anything wrong -- but it makes me kind of nervous to try again.

Box received today, two auctions from iris_sisters and two auctions from cassiechug. I am happy.

Bid on:
Country Kisses (3 rhizomes)
Ghost Writer (3 rhizomes)
Heaven's Reply (5 rhizomes)
Italian Velvet (5 rhizomes)

Bonuses:
Art School
Devilicious
First Avenue
French Lilacs

Still waiting for mind hopefully this afternoon.

Nice boxes of beauties John and Deb!

Ooh, Rob, just you wait.