Viewing post #1228529 by iciris

shizen said:we. moved from a zone 9 to a zone 10. many of my favorite plants japanese maples, tree peonies, and japanese irises do not florish here in this heat, salt, and sandy area.

another of my favorites is the tall bearded iris and is listed as maximum 9 zone plant. i have ordered 11 irises (new varieties to me). do you think they will survive or will it be a constant struggle to keep them alive? are there tb that do better in the heat than others?

i did not want to try aril or arilbreds, as i have had little luck with them in the past.

i ordered: june krause, naughty nights, ocelot, damsel ina dress, afterlife, starring, mezmerizer, pinkness, stellar lights, his royal highness, and concertina; and now i'm wondering , iris aficionados if i made a big mistake? i haven't seen many tb's for sale in the nurseris around here.

also, during the months of july/aug. we have several weeks of monsoon moisture....hardly any rain with the humidity. we live about 2 mi. from the pacific ocean. the photo below is of 'afterlife'

Daphne, I hope you don't mind I quoted your post here. This way the answers will be in one place.
I live in zone 9, so I can't help you about the zone 10 question. I'm thinking with your monsoon moisture, but not much rain, that you'll be fine. With all the heat and humidity the folks back east are getting I don't think it is as much of a problem as you think. What I don't know about is how much little winter chill you get and what that will do to the Iris. Adding compost will help the sandy soil. People push zones all the time so I say plant them and see what they do.
I'm not surprised about the nursery not selling Iris because they are not in flower right now.
again, we all love pictures of Iris and would love to see your pictures too!