I'm with you, Rita.

My garden has fewer annuals and more roses, daylilies, lilies, and irises. I especially love the rebloomers and floribundas!

For the bearded irises, can you build up mounds of dirt where you want them? This would keep some of the mulch off of them and allow them to drain better. I try to do this when I plant them, otherwise they rot.

I'm looking forward to those clump shots of yours this year!

Renee

I tried bearded iris afew years ago and they died in my heavily mulched garden. They must have rotted. I am now ready to get bearded iris again and picked out a great spot, good sun, great drainage in a long narrow garden in my front yard. I will not mulch it, or maybe very lightly in between the iris. I will just treat this section differently and have my bearded iris.

I do like many annuals and some I refuse to be without. I start seeds for sunflowers and mexican sunflowers each year because I have to have them. I start zinnias and 4 o'clocks most years. I plant some easy annual vines like Morning glories. I buy pansies, impatients, petunias and marigolds to add to the garden.

The annuals tend to be very flashy and noticable. But I could never do without my favorite flowering shrubs, perrenials and vines. Too many things growing here but I love them all:-))

Rita,I can't hardly wait to see pictures of your gardens this year.I know they will be gorgeous. Your 4 O Clocks and Morning Glories don't come back up in the spring??Years ago,I planted 4 O Clock seeds,which turned out to be a big mistake here.They about took over my intire yard and each year they doubled.I thought I would never get rid of them.I finally got the last one dug up and moved down back,and the deer got rid of them, then.Same with the Morning Glories.I planted some purple ones about 4 years ago,and each year they are coming up every where and almost take over everything.I had planted them to grow on a short fence,but,they kept growing and growing and took over the fence and got into the roses,just wrapping vines all over the roses,and I was busy pulling up tiny ones that kept coming up.So far,I don't see any this year,but I bet theywill be sprouting soon.I found a newplace to put some of them seedlings where they can grow as high as they want this year.They are very pretty in bloom.

Jean

Rita,
I have been growing irises since 1985. They are mostly in a long raised bed. I mulch mine with bark mulch but not deeply, and don't pile it up on the rhizomes.They love raised beds because they drain well, but pretty much any garden soil is fine as long as it drains well. I just wish I got a bit more cold here, because they do require some cold to bloom well. You should not have that problem, just don't pile the mulch on thick. Oh yes, they require at least a half day of sun.

Dot

back raised garden
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a small intermediate garden in the front
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Dot- That back bed is just stunning. Mine is going to be on a smaller scale than that as my bed is much narrower. Has plenty of sun.

Rita, if you have a narrow bed you might want to consider intermediates. They bloom shorter, earlier and are adorable.
They don't spread all over the place like talls. And as a bonus, they LOVE cold country and do much better there than here for me with my short winters. I love them though and grow quite a few. If you email me I will send you some pics of my intermediates.

Dot

a couple of my favorites
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taken today
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Just an off the wall idea Rita, but in your zone florist Glads might be hardy (they are in mine) and if not some of the heritage Glads are very nice looking too. I like Iris, but mostly in other peoples gardens. They bloom too briefly and the foliage needs too much care to remain looking nice throughout the rest of the year in my area for me to have indulged in the crazies for them. The foliage on my Glads stays better looking in my garden (provided that the grasshoppers don't swarm). Anyway, it's just a thought.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heirloom Glads

Glads do not come back here, they have to be lifted and replanted or bought new. I had some the past two years and did like them so bought some more this year when I ordered bulb lilies afew days ago. I also bought some shorter glads they call Gami Glads, which are shorter, only supposed to grow to two feet. I never had them before but they come in all the Glads colors so I bought 100 of them. Will see what I think when they bloom this summer. The glads do give lots of summer bloom and color.

The Iris crazies that hit me this spring are mainly for Siberian Iris, which are different from the bearded iris and have lovely folliage. I only intend to put the beared iris in this one narrow bed I have in the front. To solve the problem of non stunning folliage and no bloom later in the year, I am planting some Hummingbird mint (not a real mint) in between. It starts blooming early summer and blooms till frost. Attracts hummers. Lacy folliage and likes the same conditions as bearded iris, which is good drainage and little mulch.

Dot - I just love that first one. I will think about it, which tallness to get, but I am still leaning towards the TB for this section as I have never had TB iris. Will see.

While I have to order now for the Siberians, which need to be shipped and planted in April, bearded are shipped July and August so I still have some time to choose varieties.

Rita, I know you will be nice enough to post your daylily blooms here, but if you think about it I'd love to see some of your Glad blooms too. There's a thread on the bulb forum where I ask for pictures of named varieties. If you post there let me know so I can take a peek. I just had 40 florest glad corms shipped to me this week. Just in time for another cold snap to arrive; Hard freeze - down to 23. God help my roses and my daylilies which are all fully leafed out.

Rita, I laughed at your heading for this thread. I had the rose bug bad in the mid 1980s. Then I moved & had to leave nearly all of them behind. I've loved iris off & on for at least that many years too but I could not fight the slugs back from them when I lived in WA so I didn't go overboard. They do fantastic here so I've joined the AIS & HIPS in addition to AHS.

Now, however, I am planting a new landscape and I find myself fighting my urges for each space whether it will get roses, iris, or daylilies. Then add the lilacs, asiatic lilies, and peonies....I need larger foundational trees & shrubs too for variety but it is so hard to give up the space that could be filled with my favorites!

I never took pictures of the glads blooming. Will have to try this year. One of the things I do like about them is that they are tall and skinny, therefore you can squeeze them in all sorts of places. I do not go to the bulbs forum. As far as the glads go, I got a mixed assortment. I don't really care what the names are of the colors. Of course the catalog said the names of the varieties in the mix but I am not going to be trying to ID them. Their purpose to me is easy summer color.

Pretty much the same thing in my bulb lillies. I don't put markers with variety names, I just plant them. Kinda like my no ID daylilies before I got the daylily crazies. Plus I plant in mass and buy lots of mixed collections. Works for me, the lillies looked sooooo good last year.

I am however going to treat my iris like my daylilies my using a marker to record variety name like I do with the daylilies now.

berrytea- I can not immagine not having my roses now that they are here. The spring flush is stunningly beautiful and then they bloom on and off the rest of the summer and fall.

Funny that several people go through these same phases. I started with the roses, moved into iris, and now my biggest interest is daylilies. Fortunately, they all go well together and none are mutually exclusive. I was lucky enough that when I moved here, I was able to take about 75 of my roses with me. After adding about 150 more, I was out of "rose" room, but had room for lower growing plants. Thus the love of iris and daylilies developed.

I have a big problem with bearded iris doing well here because of the wet and the slugs. I have a glorious show every year, but have to work to keep the slugs from destroying them, and lose a lot more new varieties of iris than I manage to keep. They do way better at my Mom's vacaion house on the other side of the mountains. The siberians are a different story. They love the wet soil, and do gloriously here. They are a bear to divide, but Rita, you are right, the foilage is very nice in the summer..adds a nice texture to the garden.

Jean- My 4 o'clocks never come up the following year, they always get frozen by winter. They do not even self seed here. I mean they do alll summer but then again nothing comes up over winter. So I have to start them again, which is a real pain. I had them running all along the front wall last summer until I yanked them to make that big planter box in the front yard were lots of new daylilies are going to be planted.

Now morning glories are another story, those always (and easily) self seed. I find that if I leave any or miss any they bloom the wrong colors with smaller flowers, so I pull out self seeded vines and plant new ones from bought seeds. Last year I had some on a tower but they got so overgrown I pulled them out. This spring I think I will plant them on a much bigger, stronger tower were my trumpet vine died.

Julie- I love the flowers on the bearded iris but for me the bloom period is too short to go nuts and plant them all over. Also, I do not like the looks of the bearded iris folliage. That skinny bed section in the front will be it for now. The Siberian Iris are different and I think they will be a lovely no fuss addition to my garden.

Last night I also ordered one Japanese Iris because the picture was so lovely, I could not resist. I had some Japanese Iris many, many years ago at another house but not since then. I have this empty spot that I tried daylilies in but moved them because I did not like the look there. Its got roses and crosima on the sides and daylilies in front and then empty spot will now be iris. I also bought my first ever Spuria Iris and still don't know where I will plant it.

I have both Siberian and bearded irises planted among my daylilies. I love all of them. The Siberian irises like to be mulched like the daylilies; the bearded ones like to be just on the surface, with minimal mulch. I find the heirloom irises to be tough customers that don't mind being mixed in with the other things; I think many of the newer irises aren't as tolerant of climate/drainage variations, but that's just my opinion based on limited experience with the newer ones. I have a bunch of heirlooms - many from Argyle Acres (lots of heirlooms) and Iris City Gardens (wonderful selection of Siberians), and Superstition Iris Gardens (amazing selection) (and all great places to get irises from).

You're right, iris intros cost MUCH less than daylily intros.

Laurel

I just sent off my order today for this springs Siberian Iris to be shipped 4/27. As I can not do anything very small scale, I bought 27 for myself. Was really pleased with myself. Geez, 2009 intros for $35.00 apiece. Ha, a drop in the bucket for someone used to seeing the prices of new daylily intros.

Now I really do not know too much about Siberian Iris but there are ones that seem to have been around forever and then there are the newer ones hybridized from about 2000 on. The intros from the past five or six years have really come a long way in terms of branching, budcount, color and pattern and I just love the looks of them.

I found one of the top hybridizers of siberian iris in MA and their intros are well known in the iris world. I thought those intros were gorgeous, far nicer than anything else I saw elsewhere. Not that I have seen everything mind you but I am very pleased. 5 of what I bought were their 2009 intros and the rest all recent years intros. My Siberian Iris collection is going to be very nice.

A comment was made about growing glads and then also buying and planting lilies.

I was at a lily conference yesterday, here in Manitoba and I learned two interesting things...

Do not plant lilies next to potatoes.

Do not plant lilies in the same spot that your glads were the year before. Apparently glads will put something in the soil that kills the lilies the following year.

I have no personal experience to prove/disprove either of these ideas. I just thought I would pass this on as the topic of planting lilies and glads came up in this thread.

back to the daylilies/roses/irises...

Love all of them. I have 35 kinds of siberians with an order for another 30 or so siberians on its way in a few weeks. Siberian irises do well here in my yard. I interplant all kinds of perennials thru all the flowerbeds.
I also plant all kinds of bearded irises in and amongst the dayliles, lilies, sedums, peonies, etc etc.

Brenda

Brenda- Your garden sounds really lovely. As for gladiolas, I plant them wherever the mood strikes me. Last year I had some of them directly next to lily bulbs and they both grew and bloomed just fine. Those same lily bulbs have already come up this year. So if there is any problem, I am not aware of it.

No potatoes growing here so I am safe :-)) Don't know anything about growing potatoes. I do like to grow things in my veggie gardern but mostly tomatoes and leave the potatoes to buying in the store.

My Siberian Iris have not shipped yet (next week) and I am excited about them. Lots of easy care spring/early summer color and then the nice folliage the rest of the time. Once they get established, you don't have to fuss over them either.

I should have added that I had also been bitten by the lilies bug as last year bought about 400 lily bulbs and this spring already over 200 with about 50 more on the way. I used to have only Asiatics and Orientals but this year bought a bunch of Trumpet lilies and various trumpet hybrids and also orienpets. I just keep right on planting.

In fact I got two smaller boxes of lilies in the mail yesterday and plan to get them planted today as well as the first four daylilies to arrive already this spring.

Siberian Iris all planted. Some Gladiola corms planted amoung a row of daylilies too. I need more Siberian Iris for my front yard gardens that are off by the street. I had planned to put a row in back of the daylilies and lilies there but planted them elsewhere instead.

So what would be the difference between Intermediate bearded iris and Border bearded iris? I can't figgure it out. I thought intermediate were just a height class otherwise the same as TB but they can't be the same if they bloom earlier. I am so confused. I guess I will go ask on the iris forum.

Most intermediate irises are crosses between Standard Dwarf and Tall bearded irises, thus giving an intermediate size, The dwarfs bloom early, so therefore "most" intermediates bloom earlier than talls. Now from what I read or understand, border bearded irises are from tall breeding that just happened to bloom smaller and shorter, so they are called border bearded. Also the border bearded irises bloom about the same time as the talls. Most intermediates are sterile.
But actually they are both about the same size. Another thing about the intermediates is, they come from Standard Dwarf breeding and lots of those have an eye pattern, which can be transfered to the intermediates. Tall bearded irises do not have a spot or eye pattern. Hope this answers some of your questions.

Dot

Thanks Dot. I did post on the Iris forum as you know and I have a rather long post after yours on there. Your explination was right on the money for me and cleared up lots of confusion in my brain.