It bloomed really early for me this year, but this is the first year I got several stalks. I absolutely adore that iris, but she's stingy on blooms (poor branching, etc.) -- but the flowers are incredible and huge, and after my plants got going the flowers are now chest-high on me! So please don't give up on it yet. I just waited five years to see a flower on ENCHANTER, and boy was it ever worth it!
Mary Ann, your clump of BLUE REFLECTION is absolutely breathtaking! Don't you just love it when they produce like that? I have some that give me multiple stalks right off the bat and continue to do so each year, and then there are the sluggish ones! HALLOWEEN TRICK is one of those, I think. I got rid of it after a year, but my sis who inherited it really likes it -- a very stingy bloomer for her too, though. It seems like some of the Ghios are really vigorous, gorgeous, etc., and then there are some that just never do anything here. So I like to stick to his frilly, ruffled, gorgeous ones and he usually throws in some of the others for me to try. PICTURE BOOK is my favorite pink, and he originally gave me that as a bonus plant. So you just never know what you'll get. And some irises from other hybridizers do the same thing. Everyone loves the pink HAPPENSTANCE by Keith Keppel, and it looked pretty bad here and just dwindled away. You never know...
Sue, I would recommend you try to get HAWAIIAN RAIN into the ground, and I bet it'll really take off for you.
