Hi Mary,thanks for your advice,I sarted to grow irises three years ago and all
varieties that I have, I bought them in France, there, we can find irises of Cayeux, k.keppel, Schreiner, Blyth ... etc.
However, there, the climate is colder than here,for example
like the climate of Oregon.
In late September I will order for the first time in iris Lomer, an English couple,
which has a garden in southern Spain.
There the climate and the soil are just as
here in Portugal,very close of that of California. Although they do not possess so many
varieties like the French, they have successfully managed to cultivate irises.
Their latest introductions are for example:
Aztec Art, Grapetezer, Prague etc.
I will ask them for advice.
All varieties that I have ordered, have bloomed relatively well in the first year,
however the second and third years I have had
few flowers, I think they need time to adapt to the soil.
Last year I ordered two rhizomes of
each variety and for example of the two ryhzomes of (gypsy lord) one bloomed the other does not, the same happened with (badlands),in (dusky chalenger)
they bloomed both.
However I have some that I bought in 2011 such as: (snapshot, mariposa autumn or first interstate)
that never bloomed!I think the alkaline soil rich in potassium of southern Portugal is good for the iris.
Here we have two varieties of wild iris
two intermediate bearded varieties, white and purple and a tall bearded blue.The blue ones are very tall and they all form
massive clumps in the fields, next spring I will
take some shots to post here.
During the summer months in certain cases,their
leaves dry completely and only
begin to grow with the first rains of the Fall.
Helder F.
