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I became "infected" with "Iris Madness" about 8 years ago when a friend gave me some divisions from her garden and offered to buy me a "grab bag-full" of divisions from her "iris lady" who had become too elderly to tend her iris beds. For $35 my friend brought me several brown bags of rhizomes and a list of what they probably were. By the second bloom season most had bloomed for me, and I could identify some of them (Camelot Rose, Gold Galore, Latin Lover, etc.), but many are very old fashioned types, and Im still not sure which ones they are. Others werent among the names on the list I was given. They were all so beautiful, though, that I ordered more named varieties first from just Cooleys, Schreiners and Suttons. The past 3 years I got catalogs from many different growers and went a little crazy ordering. I now have over 350 varieties. Some have gone gang-busters under my growing conditions and others will need additional soil amendments to do well here. As my irises have increased Ive found myself taking over every sunny area on our wooded property, including a sizeable chunk of what used to be our dogs play yard. I dont have much more room for expansion, but still find myself pouring over iris catalogs.

Im passing on the "Iris Madness" susceptibility to my granddaughter who loves to walk through my gardens with me during bloom time to see which new flowers have opened. She especially loves "the purple ones", (any deep purple) and is still fascinated by the fuzzy beards.

In the past my biggest iris enemy was leaf spot and some problems with rot where I didnt lighten the clay soil enough. Our weather is usually very humid. This past year, though, the deer ate nearly every one of my rhizomes down to the nubs. In the past theyve usually taken a bite out of one or two and moved onto tastier fare in the woods. In fact I even told neighbors how the deer never bother iris. Luckily, just about every iris has bounced back.

I live in: United States

My zone is: Z6 SW Indiana

My favorite forum 1 is Iowa Gardening.

My favorite forum 2 is Dahlia.

First registered on April 02,2004.