As you might guess, I'm a retired computer systems engineer and we engineers expect to get identical results for any given tests no matter how many times they are repeated. But this will be much more fun!! Imagine, I could repeat the same experiment and get different results every single time. What a concept! I could look at a bloom and wonder what surprises are in there.

Blessings

Ooh John, You said the "R"(retired) word. I hope I can reach that one day. I'm making strong efforts to achieve it.

Once I'm establish I'll definitely do more crossings. I'll probably enjoy the blooms more than getting all the plants knocked up, but will mess around more when I have a higher inventory of certain ones. I know what I want to achieve and I'm taking those steps are aquire my own Frankenstein of a plant down the road. I'm also realizing what I want is going to take more than a few years to acheive. I'm up to the challenge though. It would be nice to have at least one plant with my First initial, Last name and year next to it.

I know others are doing this in every city, every state, every country as well year by year. Will all due respect I also understand POSSBLY why Brad does this just for fun. It'll be fun definately, but we must remember how many of these are being produced and crossed. Uniqueness is the key. I've seen a lot of garbage sneak thru too, which I won't settle for. I can pollinate 100 of the same 2 plants and get thousands of different plants. That, I plan to explore through time and hopefully acheive that one diamond in the rough. I just want ONE though, my own. Maybe in 2075 it'll be considered a historic

Lucy @irisarian brought up a point about height and classification in the honoring thread.
Q: when measuring a iris's height, where do you exactly start and end? I have a MAJOR chuck of noIDs I need to measured come spring.

Ps. It's POURING outside again

Yardstick has one end on the ground & measure to the top part of the terminal bud. some of them vary from year to year, but you can get the idea.

Someone told me to measure several stalks and average the heights. I started doing it with just the NOID's, but now make note of all of them. That way i can tell if overall, they bloom consistent, or shorter/taller, than the registered height in my garden. I can also monitor different areas of the garden for consistency as well.

Gabriel - Did your potted iris come thru the storms OK? You last mentioned that they got a bit of flooding from a downspout. NWS just posted an ice storm watch for us early next week. As I remember, you are downrange from us with weather.

I have my pots against a SW facing wall under the eve of the roof so they are fairly well protected. No signs of increases yet but three of them have a little green 'pointy' right smack in the middle of the old fan.

Hope you had a blessed Christmas.

Never saw you posted John, Lucy, and Sherry. I will take great note this season then.

They're doing just great. I did toss one today due to rot, but it was one of my tiny rhizomes from a old mother. It was inevitable I think.
They're exposed to light most the day thru sunset. There's gonna be some partial shade for them ones the huge oak leaves up again, but too much shade shouldn't be an issue. They're doing exceptionally well I think. All my late iris sister buys are finally showing slow, but decent increas. A lot of the eyes or babies are leafing out now. They were really prepped pots very very good drainage. Also, rain drops from branches seemed to perfectly land on some pots. The only issue is we had over 12 inches of rain in a few days and the soil really settled. I mean REALLY settled, which brings me to my next question.

Should I just sprinkle more mix(soil) over my rhizomes? A good amount of newer ones have gained roots on increases and I can see some reaching literally to the sky or coiling over the baby rhizomes.

One thing for sure is I need to master the planting depth. I just always fear covering the babies or burying them and rotting them out. I try the 1/3 rhizome exposed, but always end up adding more dirt.

That's great, glad to hear they are doing so good. When I potted mine I made sure the dirt was slightly higher that the edge of the pot for drainage. I've got them against the front of my house facing SW so they get afternoon sun. They are under the roof eve which sticks out a pretty good distance so they are sheltered. I have a few showing signs of life but none of them are showings signs of death.

I'll leave the sprinkling question to our pot experts, this is my first year too so I am clueless. But I can say that I've had this happen with a couple of the ones in the ground and I leave them alone. I have one that is totally out of the ground. This one is my 'experiment' I mentioned last Fall when I asked how long can you leave a rhizome unplanted.

Thanks for getting back to me and Blessings to you and yours.

I have never potted iris over the winter, so I am not much help there.

When I've had overwintering pots lose volume in potting media in winter I have replaced the soil with fine mulch. I kept the rhizome exposed but covered any roots that were showing. My thought was using something airy and light would be safer. I would also have considered using sand if I'd had it on hand. Typically that was replacing soil that washed out from the top during heavy rain, so I could just add mulch to the top. In some cases the media just decomposed and the iris was sitting lower in the pot. Then I removed the root ball and added soil to the bottom of the pot and brought the rhizome back up to the surface of the pot.

Roots need to be covered & the rhizome just where the roots attach.

Wonder if perlite would work? Very light and airy.

To help stop the soil from draining out of the holes, I put a handful (or more) of wood chips on the bottom of every pot.

I would, but I fear random termites in the section I have them. I used perlite, peat, soil and a good amount of sand. I think it was loss and also became compact.
My girlfriend just told me she tipped a ton of pots over that were submerged. She said she felt bad seeing them drowing in all the rain, that i was lucky she even went out during the thunder to check
The soil to touch is semi spongey. Mother nature was just gonna have her way no matter what I guess. I also found a very very smelly Restless Heart rhizome

We have termites here too and I have on occasion found subterranean termites in my pots. When I plant the plants (or in this case the irises) I often remove the wood chips that are stuck on the bottom of the root ball.

That was very nice of your girlfriend....she's a keeper! Sorry to hear you are already experiencing some rot issues.

Yep, she is a good'un if she is that thoughtful on your behalf.

Can probably help you with Restless Heart if you lose it. Seems to be weathering the rains pretty well. Just let me know.

No worries, got it during the auctions. I have 3 or 5 monsters. I'm goin surgical tomorrow also. It feels so personal though

Okay.

Yes, it does. How do we get attached, and so quickly?

Some hybridizers in their crosses use "unknowns" ex. DroolFactor((Chocolate×lasangna)× (unknown))

Can you do that? Is it just because we the people don't have all the hybridizers notes?

I don't wanna create a questionable noID blend or mixed with a named and it not be valid. Can I do this?