The minimum forecast for tonight (I just checked) is 30 deg, but forecasts here are notoriously unreliable. I'll have a look in the morning...

Thank you for the explanation - not something I knew about!

Unless you are trying to ripen a pod, I can see no "good" reason to leave them . I remove mine when the last flower is "spent".

how far down do you cut the stalk? all the way down to the rhizome? do you dust the cut edge with any antiseptic?

We cut down to the rhizome after bloom to prevent rot ( except for those with pods) & no dusting with anything is needed.

It was pretty frosty this morning; I have cut one of the stalks and put it in a vase indoors. If it's as cold tomorrow I'll do the same with the others. I'm not really sure what the difference is between a 'hard' frost and a light frost...

Iris...and most plants, actually...will stand a "lower than freezing" temperature (in varying degrees, of course) because the natural sugars in the sap act as an 'anti-freeze'. My Re's will *usually* not be hurt by overnight temps of 29 degrees, 28 starts to get "iffy", and lower than that...it's over for the year . Of course, a lot depends on how long that temp. persists.....if it's just for several hours overnight....or stays that way for a lot of the next day.

lucy i will be sure to do that after bloom, making sure shears are "sterilized"..

Today, December 2. 2016, in zone 9A., the Earl of Essex bloomed - tentatively, because it's cold - down to 30 last night. The Earl of Essex, a would-be lover of Elizabeth 1, must have had to stand out in the cold at times also ! I may be wrong, but he may have lost his head over her! Yes,(after checking) he was imprisoned for treason and beheaded ... and had a flower named after him.
I'd considered doing away with him myself - needing more space in the bed - but he's a brave one to bloom in the winter. He gets a reprieve for another season! Wonder what he and Elizabethan Age might produce....

Jan, very pretty bloom. There were lots of Earls of Essex, dating back to 1139; when a line became extinct or forfeit, another was created (each new line is described as a 'creation'). The two most famous Earls of Essex were Thomas Cromwell (6th creation), chief minister to Henry VIII (TC was heavily involved in the split of the Church of England from Rome; he later fell out of favour and was executed in 1540); and Robert Devereux (8th creation), who was a favourite of Elizabeth I but who led an unsuccessful rebellion against the Queen and was beheaded in 1601.

All very bloody! And I have no idea after which Earl of Essex the iris is named.

Thanks for that, Mika. English history is very fascinating...and confusing! A creation indeed! And so many of the royals and nobles were given the same name. (I will not, will not mention the orange man...)
I only know of Thomas Cromwell from Wolf Hall.

Thanks for that, Mika. English history is fascinating...and confusing! A creation indeed! And so many of the royals and nobles were given the same name. (I will not, will not mention the orange man...)
I only know of Thomas Cromwell from Wolf Hall.

I wonder which E of E hybridist Lloyd Zurbrigg had in mind?
We had a discussion about names here last year - some said the names don't matter ("a rose by any other name"), but I find the names to be a big part of the iris attraction for me. You can tell a bit about the hybridizer from the names they choose. Sometimes.

I have an ancestor, a many-times great-grandfather, Anthony Morton, who was Lord Brawley and a Sheriff of Nottingham. Of course, most of us know of the Sheriff from the Robin Hood tales - but I understand that it was mainly an honorary position, that changed every few years. I think that he was a Yorkist, and a Catholic. I always though I'd have more time and money to study our genealogy - when I got old! But...

Yes, some names really 'grab' me. On a completely different level of thought - and apologies for lowering the tone - I REALLY want to get 'Why Cows Gossip', because I find the name irresistible ...

Jan, I think you can achieve a lot in ancestry tracing online these days, and without cost. My mother got really interested in it, and I have a sister who has taken it over - you should give it a go! If you have a date (or even an approximate date) try ancestry.co.uk or findmypast.co.uk or any one of many alternatives...

Let us know what you discover!

Thanks Mika. I know about Ancestry and sent them money monthly for nearly 2 years for the International and American subscriptions. I learned a lot. There are some free sites too. But what spare time I have now from my ceramics is focused on irises!

As the child of two history professors I need to add a word of warning about Ancestry and other such sites. Take some of the results with a grain of salt because the results aren't always true. If you have a good idea of who all your most recent ancestors are then all those associations may put it on the right path, but there are lots of people with same names and lots of records so you may be linked to an incorrect ancestor. An example using my family.

In the Ohio Valley around Chillicothe there was more than one John T. Now, we know that our John T. had married Dolly P. and they and their families moved to Indiana. Now the other John T. and his family moved to Oklahoma. While we are distantly related to the Oklahoma Branch, that is not our direct line of ancestors. They all were there pre-Civil War so there are only so many records available. Now, many names were used over and over in the family - such as John, Samuel, Daniel, so there is a greater margin of error for Ancestry to pick the correct one from that point in time. As both John T.'s descended from brothers Jacob and Samuel you might get back to a point where they all join up again, but then again you may also become linked to total strangers. We know a lot about our family because my Dad spent years doing research. Going to courthouses and the Library of Congress to get muster roles, and etc.

good advice. Take our Williams family. 4th most common surname in the US. Any by that name before the mid 19th century is not related to us.

Liked your Ancestry story, Leslie. My comeuppance came recently. I'd traced our line back to Wm. the Conq..several years ago. and was thrilled ( even though my peaceful side said he probably wasn't a very nice guy) - only to read a book by British author Richard Dawkins that points out that in more than 800 years old William has over a million descendants!

[quote="Islandview"]
Here's a pic of Daughter of Stars with two bloom stalks:
[/quote

Hi Ivor, this is my first time seeing an all purple (bud) stalk. It is eye catching!