irises

[low_delta]

I just dug up a bunch of irises. Is anyone interested in any of them?

I've got some golden yellow rebloomers, that never bloomed well for me.
I've got the fragrant purple and white dotted Swiss. pic
I've got a group of both purple-and-cream or what I call orange. I'm not sure which are which. pic

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I'd love your irises but they won't let them through customs here.
:(

[mummm.livejournal.com]

*Raising hand high!!!*

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Right now, my plan is to gather addresses tonight, box them up on thursday, and ship them either friday or saturday.

Which ones do you want? Any and all?

[mummm.livejournal.com]

All please?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I'm mailing them on Saturday morning. Lind Court?

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Lind Court North... yes please! Let us know the postage?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

De nada!

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Here’s what you may have. I have numbered each plant with a marker. On the leaves, and also on the top of the rhizome.

1. Golden yellow reblooming irises. They bloom in the spring *and* the fall... theoretically. In three years, mine only bloomed one fall and one spring. Maybe you'll have better luck.
2. Either or both of... one kind is a rusty orange color. They have a slight spicy scent. The other kind has light colored standards and purple falls. They're mixed together, and I can't tell them apart.
3. Dotted Swiss. They're white with purple speckles. They have a great, sweet fragrance.
4. Possibly medium sized purple and white. Not sure.

The reblooming irises are a fairly new variety. They are supposed to bloom in both the spring, ike normal irses, and at the end of summer, until frost. Yours are new, so it won’t bloom next spring, but you should get some blossoms in the fall. They spread even more quickly than normal irises, so leave them some room, and plan on thinning them every two years, instead of every three.

They are heavy feeders. It is recommended that you fertilize. You should fertilize them in early spring and again after spring bloom. Be careful not to put the fertilizer directly on the plant, but sprinkle it on the ground around the root zone area. Use a fertilizer with a fairly low Nitrogen content, such as 5-10-5, mixed 50/50 with superphosphate (0-45-0). For the rebloomers, apply a liquid foliar fertilizer once or twice in September. Basically, you don’t want to let the rebloomers go dormant. Water them adequately at least once every other week if the rainfall hasn’t been sufficient, so they don’t dry out completely. You may want to grow the rebloomers together or mark them in some way since the once-bloomers may rot with the extra water and fertilizing.

But if all that fertilizer sounds like too much work, I say just plant ‘em, and see what happens.

Please let me know how you like them, and whether you got the colors you desired.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the instructions and very much for sending them. They are here. :^)

There seems to be one that is unmarked. Any ideas on which one that might be?

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

#1 Are usually large, and usually have well-developed leaf fans. They have purple on the bases of the leaves.

#2 Are usually medium sized, and have no purple color on the leaves.

#3 Are usually medium sized and have purple on the bases of the leaves.

#4 Are small, but I think I marked all of those. Or maybe not.

The purple on the leaves looks different between #1 and #3. Compare them, and then compare the unmarked one.

Even if the rebloomers don't bloom, the plants look really great that first year. The fans are large and full. The leaves are tall and straight. Once they start blooming in the fall, they keep going until frost. If you know it's going to frost, cut the stalks and take them indoors.