Lilli, your experience together with my own observations doesn't sound all to promising for Silverado growers around here. I'm not growing mine for the foliage, so I'm already leaning towards letting it go, but I divided and replanted mine in an area with more sun and lighter soil last summer, so we shall see if it likes that better, but there will be no blooms for me this year.

Bonnie, I can see a bit of the lavender influence you are talking about in Silverado, even though mine seems to have bloomed bluer than the majority of pics in the database. Could change with warmer weather in a more normal year, we shall see.

As I'm already here confessing my love for similar light/sky blue selfs and my tendency to buy too many of them, I need to put this IB in the mix:

But who knows which color I will get here, maybe a bit darker?

If it does bloom darker, then it will compete more with Sapphire Hills


So where does that leave me, especially as IBs and TBs often bloom at nearly the same time here?
Even worse I'm also eyeing 'Ciel D'Azur' with hungry eyes http://wiki.irises.org/Ib/IbCi...

William ~ I also like blue (self) irises. In fact it would be nice to have a field of them. If the deer would leave them alone, I probably would do that! At the moment, I am confined to growing my irises, and other tasty morsels in my small fenced garden area.

When your Absolute Treasure blooms, will you take pictures of it? I just ordered mine for this season, so I haven't even received it yet.

Evelyn, I will of course take some pictures of Absolute Treasure if it blooms , unless something unforeseen happens.

Sorry that the deer eat your irises. I do know they can learn to eat things they supposedly shouldn't eat, especially if they are starving. Here the deer eat reticulated iris buds in the spring, but never the foliage. They can also nibble on bearded irises, but so far never any real damage.

Not only do they eat the flowers off, but they eat the foliage, and what messy bites, at that!

vs



I have been wondering what the differences between these irises really are.

I've seen Global Crossing mentioned as an updated form of World Premiere and maybe I can see a few tiny differences in these photos, but I would be curious if someone here had the opportunity to compare them in real life or had some other insight?

Is it worth to "upgrade" my World Premiere or not?

Global Crossing is bit more deeply ruffled and has heavier substance than World Premier. Other than that, there isn't much difference between them.

Kent. I really appreciate your insight. I can live without those small improvements as World Premier is already a very good iris.

William said: Kent. I really appreciate your insight. I can live without those small improvements as World Premier is already a very good iris.

I agree. World Premier is a very good iris.

I looked up their parentage, and see that World Primier is the pod parent of Global crossing.

evelyninthegarden said:I was always wondering why there are so many nearly identical irises on the market. I do realize that it is extremely difficult to produce a unique iris, but with some, I cannot even tell them apart. The people that approve these introductions; who are they? Do they know about their "almost twins"?

For instance, go to Rocky Top Garden's webpage and look at Jadzia $50.00
Then look 3 down from that,
Jeanne Clay Plank $10.00

On Sutton's website there are quite a few that are similar, but not really almost identical...
Adventurous
Bandwidth
Bold Pattern (more ruffles)
Brighton Beach
Color Shift
Fresh Flavor
Into the Wild

And then they have:
Fruit Stripe
Glamazon ...without the stripes

I have seen a whole lot of blue-violet and white ones with almost the same features. I thought that the idea was to bring in new designs. I didn't say it was easy, as I think I may be 10 years on just one, if I am lucky! (Lucky enough to live that long and to still be able to work in the garden.)

Which ones have you seen that you could not tell apart? Did you get them both? Can we see your pictures?

UPDATE!

My pictures of two irises that I now have in bloom are identical, except for the fact that Cruise to Autumn has bloomed very short. This is, however, its maiden bloom. Actually I have more than one rhizome of it, and the same short stalk, but looking identical to Afternoon Delight. Since my cell phone pictures of these two are not quite accurate, I will show you some from the database.

Afternoon Delight


Cruise to Autumn


That being said, it is difficult to capture the colors accurately. In my garden they look nearly if not identical! Hmmm...

tveguy3 said:Sometimes if I really like an iris, I'll buy two look alike irises that bloom at different times, one that blooms early and one that blooms late or very late. That way I get to see them for a very long season.

Excellent idea.

Last summer I did not label as carefully as I should have. I did know generally which iris were where. 'Missouri' and 'Blue Rhythm' look alike from a distance. I would have been unsure which was which were it not for the fact that both ended up blooming within days of each other. At that point, the differences were clear. BR bloomed first. Because its colors were much more vivid than the reference photos I had, I initially thought it was 'Missouri' ... until 'Missouri' bloomed

Blue Rhythm (left) Missouri (right)

csandt said:

Is there a place where information on the disease resistance of iris cultivars is collected and made publicly available, or is this information mostly anecdotal, i.e. known primarily by those who are part of the iris-growing community, but not available in written form?

Great idea. I would be interested in knowing which have stronger stalks. Floppy iris irritate me.

UndertheSun said: too!

This year, everything seemed to bloom at once. It was the shortest bloom season, but the most blooms, that I've had. Oddly enough, it was the worst bloom season for the NoIDs.

I agree. The iris bloom season was way too short this year. On the other hand, my daffodil season went on forever. Last week, one final daffodil bloomed.

Evelyn, those pics of 'Cruise to Autumn' look a lot oranger than 'Afternoon Delight' (which just finished blooming here). The rim on the falls looks wider, too.

Marilyn ~ Yes, I noticed that too. In the photos you can see the differences, but with the naked eye, they both look more alike, and not as colorful, either! The camera seems to add more color.

Not only does the digital camera sometimes seem to add more color, but it also sometimes seems to make bloom images look clearer than they really are.

Many years ago I had a diploid daylily seedling that was a muddy rose (with white-ish midribs). You couldn't tell from the digital image that it was muddy - it looked very clear and attractive, nothing like the unappealing mess it was in real life.

Getting back to "adding more color", I have several images of 'Sweet Musette' where the color is far more vibrant than I see in the garden. At least some of those images were taken with back lighting (that's just how things are placed in the garden, not a deliberate ploy) and I have to wonder if that factors into it.

tveguy3 said:Sometimes if I really like an iris, I'll buy two look alike irises that bloom at different times, one that blooms early and one that blooms late or very late.
Like Black Magic Woman Early to Mid season

• Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Black Magic Woman')
• Uploaded by KentPfeiffer

Sharp Dressed Man that starts blooming Mid Season and goes for a long time.

• Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Sharp Dressed Man')
• Uploaded by KentPfeiffer

That way I get to see them for a very long season.

I have both and wondered which is which since I moved them to a different spot in the garden. Bloom time is definitely a big plus in identifying identical irises. Right now BMW is blooming and SDM is not. Thank you for the info.

So here is BMW in my garden.

Looking good too I might add.