I was at Schreiner's at the end of May in both 2009 and 2010. In 2009 it was in the mid-90's in Salem, and in 2010 it was that cold, rainy year that Keith mentioned where he couldn't make any crosses. And it was raining on and off the entire time I was at Schreiners. But ALSEA FALLS looked spectacular both times. That is THE ONE I've been waiting for for three years, and now I must have it! I'm checking the Schreiner's website daily to see if they have posted the rest of their intros yet, plus they've deleted a lot of the irises that were posted there before in their alpha listing so I'm hoping they will be adding new one soon. Which reminds me -- I haven't looked today yet! Here is what the clumps looked like in both years:
2009 (hot)
2010 (rainy)
When it was raining that day it was really pelting us from time to time, and I thought ALSEA FALLS held up quite well. If you enlarge the picture you can see that darker amoena behind it has just about all the standards flattened from the rain. That was something I noticed about it when I first saw it -- it seemed to have good substance, the falls were long, ruffled and beautiful -- and most important, the standards did not fly open on each bloom. I really do not like the standards to open too much so there are big gaps between them. I have gotten rid of a lot of iris because of that. Also, I thought the deep blue color of the falls was exquisite, and I don't even mind that it's going to be more expensive because I know it's worth it!
