My guess is you get what passes thru us. We have been getting wave after wave of storms that produce quite a bit of rain. We are expecting very severe weather this afternoon with the threat of hail and tornadoes . WE have a small window to try to get photos this morning. The pattern has been just spread out enough that the new blooms don't get a chance to open all the way before they get beat up. It is so sad to see what was going to be a beautiful bloom turn into mush. Still using comet at the first sign of a soft rhizome.

Hope we both dry out here pretty soon.

Blessings

I think you are right, John. Our storms usually come from the west. I am fairly new to iris and I need to try the Comet trick. I will pick up some my next time out to town. I would hate to lose my fancy ones

Our iris show is tomorrow and all of this rain has played havoc with the blooms.
On a note of black irises, I have Dark Passion but also have Here Comes the Night which is very black. My pictures of it are horrible but you can see the darkness of it.

It was so tall this year that I had to stake it up along with Saturday Night Live. Rain soaked to boot. Pretty buttermilk beard though.

bluegrassmom said:I think you are right, John. Our storms usually come from the west. I am fairly new to iris and I need to try the Comet trick. I will pick up some my next time out to town. I would hate to lose my fancy ones

I think you need to use Comet with bleach, as the bleach is what kills bacteria. I don't know if it comes without bleach or not.

Yes Teresa -- I'm having terrible rot problems. The soil cannot dry out before another rain front comes through. The cool temps haven't helped either. I'm losing lots of fans and bloom stalks. I bring the bloom stalks inside to let them bloom in a vase -- at least I get to see them that way -- but the fans are lost forever. On the cultivars where I've lost a fan, I don't know if I'll lose the entire cultivar or not. Some of them continue to rot, others have gone quiet. Only time will tell. I got so many gorgeous Irises last year, Irises that I've wanted forever. It'll just kill me if they don't survive. Almost all of my rot problems have been in my two Nursery-beds.

This morning I noticed that the only bloom stem coming on Rare Coin rotted off, so I guess I don't see that one this year. More rain coming tonight, then freezing on Saturday night.

Freezing! Now!?!

This has been one crazy gardening Spring!

It's not unusual for frost to happen up to Mid May, I remember one year about 25 years ago that it froze in June, killed all of my tomatoes, although that is rare.

I do hope this weather does 'average out' a bit. I don't know if you could ever call weather normal but some of this is getting wild.

We have out 40 tomatoes. They are beginning to look waterlogged I sure hope things turn around!

I'm afraid the long range forecasts look wet and cool for this part of the US. I have no idea when this current pattern will break down. The gulf moisture stream is quite pronounced and Tom keeps sending us these cold dry lines with disturbances coming out of the plains. When they meet, count on heavy rain. Mercy!!!

Blessings

Sure, blame it on me!

Those of us here in the middle of the Heartland do!!

Loving the black irises. I have a couple stalks that look black so waiting to see what is what.

About 3 years ago I went on a quest for the best black Tall Bearded Iris mostly from Schreiner's. 'Midnight Oil' is growing great for us in the PNW cool maritime z8b climate. And and it is by far the darkest. I have a men's xl size hand. So yes it was large for a 3 bulb plant first flowering from a single bulb start.

Her's a question for all of you. Since most "black" irises have an undertone of color, which ones have an undertone of blue, rather than red?