Moving a few bearded iris clumps. 9.3.14

Transported Iris Clumps.  9.3.14

Immortality, settled into place  9.3.14

 I moved 3 bearded iris clumps to the Battleground beds.  Two replace clumps that were lost this spring.  Immortality - which wasn't immortal, but is a nice white iris - and Accent.

I moved the clumps as intact as possible.  The soil was very dry.  In their locations, somewhat crumbly, not like a brick.

Into bags, then to the new location.

Again, I used unamended soil to replace soil where the prior clumps had died, or were moved out.

Then cleaned out the weeds, cut off dead leaves, watered them in carefully, and sprayed the leaves with neem.

This is the one watering until nature provides.

I think it helps a lot to write the name on a couple of leaves, via sharpie.   Less chance for mix-up.

Now they have copper labels too.

I also moved "Spiced Custard", which is not a historic iris, but I like.  It did not have enough room.  Now it does.

Accent, trimmed, cleaned up, neemed.

These irises from the Vancouver yard did not have any fungal spot at all.  They had less care than  the ones in the Battleground yard, drier and no TLC.  Which supports my contention that over-nurtured the Battleground irises.

Immortality, replanted, cleaned up, and neemed

Historic Iris Beds. 9.2.14

Historic - mostly - Iris Beds.  9.1.14

Recovering Iris Plants.  9.1.14

Recovering Iris Plants.  9.1.14

 This is the state of the historic iris beds.  Historic irises, not historic beds.  They have nice growth, coming into fall.  I have sprayed with neem oil weekly.  The neem does not damage the leaves.  I don't know if it helps.  Fungus spot remains on the older leaves.  Expected - fungicide does not heal old spots, it prevents new ones.  I don't mind a few, expected in an organic garden.

Established vs. New Iris Plant.  Honorabile.  9.1.14

I thought I would lose Owyhee Desert - not historic - and Gay Geisha - historic.  Both are growing.  I doubt bloom next year.  Gracchus took a big hit too, and is growing again.  All 3 of these got replacement soil earlier this year, not enriched or amended.

Flavescens is poking along.  This may not be a good variety for this area.  I bought a replacement but the  original regrew.  The replacement is smaller than the original.

Alcazar is growing again.   It's almost as big as it was last year.  I thought it might be near-dead.  I suspect it will need at least another year to get viorous growth.  Assuming the plant disease issues are not a problem.  These also got new, unamended, unenriched, replacement soil.  The same for Shannopen, not shown.  That one, formerly big stout fans, reduced to nothing, but a tiny shoot grew so I kept it.

The final photo shows the difference between 1st year and 2nd year growth, for spring planted rhizomes.  This is sold as Honorabile but may be Sans Souci.  I bought a replacement because the growth last year was so minimal.  Despite the fungal issues with other plants, the overwintered cluster has much bigger leaves and better growth, compared to the rhizome I planted this Spring.  I think this indicates the Spring planted rhizomes, even if they might bloom the first year, are more stressed and take longer to establish, compared to summer - dormant -rhizomes.  This seems more true for the ones that are allowed to bloom the first year - makes sense, but the point of the Spring planting is to get same-year flowers.

New tags for all.  These are copper, which is embossed with ball point pen.  The steel markers with laundry marker faded too fast and will be reused elsewhere.

Bearded Irises, Better Photos. 5.15.14

Alcazar  1910

 I think Alcazar is generally larger.  This is the first year.  I'm surprised it bloomed at all.

Bumblebee Deelite 1985

 In 2012 I dug out the overgrown bundle of Bumblebee Deelite and replanted at various locations around the Battleground yard.  There were too many rhizomes, so I planted left-overs in the fence row.  They look nice there.

Caprice 1898

 While planting Tomato plants 2 beds over, I smelled the fragrance of Caprice wafting in the wind.  The writers are right, it's like Grape Koolaid.  But better.

Red Hawk  1995

 This is an excellent depiction.   The  color is richer than most photos.

Edith Wolford 1986

 The Walking Onions add a nice appearance to Edith Wolford bearded iris.

Mislabeled Pink Fragrant

 This was sold as Whole Cloth, which is blue and white.  Whatever it is, the fragrance is very sweet and floral.  The downside, it is less vigorous and more disease susceptible compared to some of the others.

Bearded Iris Bed.  5.15.14

Gay Parasol.  1974.

 Smaller flower than some modern tall beardeds, but very nice and very fragrant.  Gay Parasol.

Indian Chief.  1929.

 Really wanted this Indian Chief bearded iris to bloom this year.  And it did.  Also a nice fragrance, mild.

Gracchus.  1884.

 Gracchus bearded iris was one of the most disease resistant.  And all of these flowers from one rhizome.  Small but vigorous.

Unknown from Tennessee.

 Must be an early plicata, or an unnamed seedling.  Sold by a Tennessee company via mail order.

Red Zinger.  1985.

 Miniature.  I grew Red Zinger from a dried out sale rhizome late 2012.  It didn't bloom last year.  I'm surprised, now it's vigorous.  You almost have to be on  your knees to smell them.  It's worth it.  A candy fragrance.

Loreley.  1909.

 Loreley historic bearded iris.  Almost like Japanese irises.  Some are fully open, some partially.  The white outline on the falls makes them stand out nicely in photos.   Sweet fragrance.  Same Tennessee company as the unknown.  Slow start, but this year very nice.  Seems to be disease resistant.

Bearded Irises.  5.15.14

I'm happy with the bearded irises, both modern and historic / heritage irises.  I thought they might all die off this late winter, but they are blooming nicely.  Some varieties have the most and largest flowers I've seen.

Some of the leaves don't look great.  As long as they grow out of it, I'm OK.

Historic Irises. 5.13.14

Heritage Iris Bed #2

Heritage Iris Bed #1

Mostly Heritage Irists

Heritage Iris "Indian Chief"

Heritage Iris "Loreley"

These aren't the best pics.  Forgot camera so used Ipad.  Now it's in the 70s and 80s. Much drier and warmer.  The onslaught of illness has abated.  These can be considered among the toughest and most resistant, simply because they survived and bloomed.

In Iris Bed #2, "Orange Harvest" looks out of place, so should be removed.  It is labeled as fragrant but I don't smell anything.

Caprice and Pallida dalmatica both have a grape soda fragrance.  Very nice.

The colors here are fairly true, but a little washed out.  That is effect of Ipad and it is very sunny.

Bearded Irises. 5.11.14

Alcazar

 I'm happy there are still some bearded irises.  With each rain, another is lost.

Now that the rains are over, or almost over, I'm curious to see if the epidemic is over.

Alcazar bloomed.  I'm surprised and glad.  Slight fragrance, nice.

Quaker Lady is not as prolific as year #1, but at least it survived.  Slight fragrance, nice.

Gracchus is very vigorous, small, and appears more disease resistant compared to a number of others.  Slight fragrance, nice.

The unknown from Tennessee  survived and bloomed, which surprises me.

The yellow iris that came with this place, and is all over the property, is blooming much better this year.  All I did was weed, and give a little very dilute fish emulsion last summer.  It did not succomb to bacterial rot, so I think it must be quite rugged.  No fragrance that I can detect.

Quaker Lady

Gracchus

Unknown from Tennessee

Yellow Unknown from Battleground

Yellow Unknown from Battleground

Beared Iris Order. Traits to seek. Lessons Learned. 5.7.14

Today I added orders for 3 varieties of bearded iris.  Two are heritage varieties.  Heritage varieties are 30 years old, or older.

Beverly Sills.  1979.  Listed as vigorous.  Pink.  There are not a lot of pink heritage varieties.  The vigor would be welcomed as well.  Bloom time early midseason.

Gingersnap.  1969.  Fragrant, listed as root beer scent.  I bought this last year, but it succumbed to bacterial rot.  I am taking a change to try again due to the fragrance.

June Kraus.  2009.  Not a heritage variety.  Nice ruffled pink.  Listed as late season.

Traits to seek.  Lessons learned.

Currently the irises that were not in the raised beds, did not develop bacterial rot.  Some were in beds that had added compost.  I had over-nurtured the raised beds with dilute plant food last summer.   Ultimately, all of the irises in the raised beds had some bacterial rot.  This hear, I will not over nurture them.  Just remove weeds. remove some of the unwanted varieties and replace with new ones or others I already have.

So -

-Don't water in summer or fall.  Or be very careful.
-Don't fertilize.  Or be very careful.
-Take note of the least affected varieties.  In this case, that's Pallida dalmatica, Pallida vareigata, Germanica, and a few others.

In addition, the earliest bloomers are the most affected by rain.  It's drier here after early may.  Try to aim for late season varieties.

The tiny ones can be nice, but are so short, they are difficult to see and almost impossible to smell.  I will remove some of those to make room for later, taller varieties.

That's the plan.

Despite the bacterial rot, there are more flowers this year than next year.  The worst seems to be over.  Some references state remove all of the affected varieties, but in my case, that's everything in all of the raised beds.  So I will depend on plant hygiene and more appropriate growth conditions, and see if they grow better this time around.

Heritage Iris Bed. 5.6.14

Heritage irises in bloom.  5.6.14

 More of the heritage irises are blooming.  Iris florentina and Her Majesty continue to bloom and continue to be fragrant.  Indian Chief is blooming and is lightly fragrant.  Iris pallida dalmatica is the tallest and most fragrant so far.

Maybe with warmer drier weather the bacterial rot problem will resolve.  I hope so.  No additional compost or other stimulants.

I thought the Caen Anemones were all eaten by rabbits or deer.  A few are blooming after all.  They survived the big freeze, but the animals are another matter.  Maybe they will continue to survive.

Bearded Irises. Bacterial Rot. New Order. 4.20.14

Iris Bed.  Bacterial Blight Takes a Toll.

The Last Shipment of Historic Iris Rhizomes.

That Package held a lot of rhizomes.

Disappointed.  All 3 beds of bearded iris are affected by bacterial blight.  Every plant.  A few have died, completely.  This follows another week of rain.  The photo doesn't look as bad as they do in reality.

The irises in the front border were not affected.  That must indicate, the TLC these got was detrimental.  I can't think of any other reason

Since every iris was affected, it's no use removing them and trying to isolate the diseased ones.  I'll continue weeding and pulling out dead fans.  Im guessing about 1/4 of the fans have rotted.  Maybe more.  Most of the leaves are at least a little affected.

Interesting timing for the order to arrive from Old House Gardens.  But they did.  I did not want to plant them on top of rotting iris rhizomes, so gave them a temporary place in what I planned to have as a vegetable bed.  After things dry out, if it looks like the disease rhizomes survive and come out of it, I'll plant them together again.

This is the first time this has happened..  It must be the combination of feeding them too well, plus the rainy chilly weather after a burst of growth.

Looking Back. June 1 2013

Heritage Iris Bed #1

Pallida variegata

Looking back at June 1 2013.  Most of the heritage irises and some off the others were blooming.  Most of the heritage irises were in their first season here, so had not established.  This gave me a chance to view the flowers.  I think in their second year most will have more flowers, and they will be larger.  I think some will be clusters of flowers, instead of one stalk per rhizome.

The colors are very impressive.

Looking back, I didn't realize the NOID was so brilliant yellow, and the NOID plicata was so beautiful.

Honorable vs. Sans Souci

Quaker Lady

Caprice

 Gives me something to look forward to as we move into winter.

Iris flavescens

Iris pallida dalmatica

Pink Bubbles

NOID Yellow from Battleground WA

NOID plicata

NOID plicata

Historic Bearded Irises. Order for next Spring.

Crimson King.  Old House Gardens

 This is my iris order from Old House Gardens.  Link is to the online catalog.  Based on this year's experience, most of them should bloom a couple of months after planting.  Most are compact, a few are larger.

I think, by planting actively growing rhizomes shortly prior to bloom, that sets them back a little.  But these varieties are not easy to find.   The rhizomes send last spring were healthy appearing, clean, and grew nicely.  And it's nice to see them bloom so soon after planting, even if not full size.  I liked the prior order, and have confidence I will like this one.

Dauntless.  Old House Gardens.

Frank Adams.  Old House Gardens.

Mrs. George Darwin.  Old House Gardens.

Plumeri.  Old House Gardens.

Rosy Wings.  Old House Gardens.

Wabash.  Old House Gardens.