CS,
It was absent from mine because it simply would not grow here. I've discarded a lot of "hot-must haves" over the years because they simply did not perform in my particular area. I always have hoped for the best, but came to the stark reality all irises are not equal. Sadly!

My Sea Power is rather hit or miss in blooming as is Drinks at Sunset. They just don't increase much and bloom infrequently.

Sea Power seldom blooms here and almost never increases. It still has garden room but.......

I too have had issues with Sea Power equal to Bonnie's experience. It is in the "best" garden and it will not bloom this year when it seems 90% of its mates will (2nd year bed).

Leon - I find it extremely interesting when we all put our "best" or "Fav" lists and I see all of the different choices people list. More so when we post the same or someone posts a list that I have alot of. I have 8 of your 12 list and thought that was pretty good. Then Jane said she had 10 out of 12 Dang!

Greg,
Guess that means we all share some favorites. Mine are primarily chosen because of (1.) performance, and (2.) looks and appeal. And (I feel) we all share a bit of the iris 'virus' addiction! And that's not all bad.

Sea Power does fine for me here in western Kentucky. Blooms every year and is not in the greatest location.



It's a beautiful Iris!!!

Really beautiful!

Nice to see this thread revived! When I started it I was steadfastly intending to continue my chaotic, "natural" style of gardening and looking for irises that tolerate that kind of abuse and competition. The look is still cottagy, but these days I yank a lot of self seeded flowers and give the special irises room. Interestingly, some that had been favorites for many years have become almost too happy with better care and may need to be moved, as they're almost too aggressive in the garden now. I'm enjoying this transition in my tastes and what I'm now looking for in new irises. I still prefer disease resistant varieties with strong stems, and playing well with others is a big plus!

Leon, I LOVE the garden shots alongside the closeups! Its awesome to see them in the garden setting!

I've observed this spring that the Paul Black varieties I've added to the garden appear to be good mixed garden performers. It makes me think he must prioritize growth and vigor when making his selections.

I like having good recommendations for newbies, varieties that are most likely to succeed and get them firmly addicted to irises A lot of losses for a newbie could quickly turn them against irises, and we just can't have that

I have enjoyed this thread a lot. I don't grow any 'modern' iris per se, but .....

Mary Ann: Your photo of the clump of "Stairway to Heaven" is gorgeous. That is one lovely Iris and your photo was beautiful.

Leon: I fell in love with your photo of the clump of "Holy Night" and "Sultry Mood"
they are really beautiful Iris and I thought your photo's were beautiful.

Thank you for sharing these wonderful Iris photo's.

creativeclover said:quaker lady is good. I would recommend blue reflection, crimson king, lovely senorita, draculas kiss,

Richard: I have 2 rhizomes growing of "Crimson King" in two different locations and neither one of them bloomed for me this year. I'm so bummed out about that

Sherry: Your clump of "Dynamite" was spectacular! I have to add that one to my Wish List. Your Photo was just beautiful ! Thank you for sharing it.

gemini_sage said:Nice to see this thread revived!
Leon, I LOVE the garden shots alongside the closeups! Its awesome to see them in the garden setting!

I like to mix irises into the "total landscape picture". There are so many perennials that go favorably with them. With that said (in spite of my perpetual downsizing) I still have about 100 cultivars in rows behind the house! If I was somewhat younger I'd probably plow up the whole yard! But unfortunately the aging process does take its toll on planning & expansion!

With that said here are some more pictures from this morning illustrating what I'm trying to say. The last one is a shot of our "Pet Cemetery". It is surrounded by a ring of SDB's not shown in this picture.

Something I love about historics in the mixed garden (aside from their vigor) is I find the look of a multitude of smaller blooms is often more graceful to me than fewer, more individually exquisite, blooms. I'm drawn to MTBs for that reason, and I'm seeing how modern breeding has brought substance to the mix that makes the blooms last longer, and the work toward better branching and higher bud count extends the bloom time. As newer varieties increase I'll feel more confident trying them in more competitive garden situations and see how they tolerate it.

Neal, some of the Mid America irises that I've ordered say they have lots of smaller blooms - can't vouch for them since they haven't arrived yet, much less flowered for me! But it was exactly the consideration you mention - wanting in some contexts to have a graceful blending with other plants - that attracted me to them. All My Dreams (Black), Crete (Johnson) are ones I recall, but there are others.
(I have also ordered some of the more normal, bigger varieties and a few MTBs, IBs and SDBs.)

From my experience visiting Mid-America this year the ones with smaller blooms more than made up for it like advertised. My Into the Blue from Schreiner's last year has been very pleasing this year with large blooms and nine buds per stalk. I haven't had it long enough, but it's growth has been pleasing too with an increase ratio of 5:1 on my potted one starting with two.

Wonderful colour, Niki.

Mika, I noticed that a lot of Paul Black intros in the catalog said they had smaller blooms and lots of them. One such variety is Simply Coral, that had its first bloom this spring (2nd year in the garden). Its one I posted a photo of a couple of weeks ago when I had lost the tag, but I found it in my records.

http://garden.org/pics/2016-05...

And did you find that there were lots of smaller blooms? Really like the colour. The possibility of having a choice between the amazing large blooms and smaller but more numerous blooms really appeal to me.

Yes, smaller blooms and on the short side, but that one stalk produced a lot of buds. I can't wait to see it as a clump! It was a bonus with my order 2 years ago. The color is yummy, and the form is really lovely- those even ruffles are gorgeous and it has great substance. Held up great in rain. That's another thing I like about smaller blooms, seems they're less likely to be damaged as badly by weather.

I was attracted to Simply Coral too, Neal. Next year, maybe.