The funniest thing happened at the potting bench today. As I was doing things like getting these baby Oregon Irises into pots to grow on, I found a couple more starts..but not in the original pot I've been saving all this time. Apparently I either dropped a few of these seeds nearby, or maybe another years seeds ( normally saved in the same location ) got in the 'to be used soil' mix ( my soil mixes are in 33 gal garbage cans), or ? No idea what happened or what vintage the newly found starts are, but they are smaller and just germinated in the last day or so. The original ones I told you about are now spread out into little pots, and the interesting thing is how long the roots are. They were all about 6 inches long, with the shoots of the plants varying from maybe 1/2 " to 6 ". Bright white, strong, and looking like they want to be in a damp environment. Interesting since the mother plant is in well drained, moist but sometimes dry soil. And each and everyone of the new babies is holding on strongly to it's seed. Shoot, seed, root.. like they each are holding a little purse. :) The seeds never budged as I split the plants apart and fussed with things.

Hi I have a type that is a true blue and grows and flowers much like a beaded Iris Flowers come from a branched stem that grows up to six feet.They also remain open all day and night. It is a "SWAMP type but feel that it's not a Louisianna as the standards stick up much like a bearded. It does require standing water year around so feel sure it's not a beaded/japanese or siberian. If you have a marsh or water garden they are good except VERY invasive lol and they only flower in the spring . gary

Yes. The yellow iris - which was supposed to be blue and descended from the blue flags of Mary Gardiner - is blooming right now. It is bearded. The bud starts out blue tipped then opens to yellow standards and blue striped yellow falls. Within a day or two the blue stripes turned brown and the yellow standards were not really clear yellow any more. We have had heat and rain so that may account for the dulling of the colors. The plant is robust and spreads rapidly. The flowers are 30"to 36" tall and smaller than those of today's. Meanwhile we have been in touch with Dr. Favretti and he says that we obviously have the wrong iris as his ARE blue. He has recently divided his, discarding the extras but has offered us another try after his present clump spreads enough for another divide.I expect to get in touch with him again to see if he knows the botanical name of the Gardiner Island iris and if he could send us a picture. We also tried to make contact with "the President's House" at Yale but got no response, and we have e-mailed the museum at Worden in Holland asking for information about corespondence of Mary Gardiner. Also no answer to date. So the hunt goes on. At least we now know that the yellow iris we have been cherishing as blue flag Gardiner Island is the wrong one and we may discard it. Gnomlet aka Marianne

I have always seen photos of Salvia patens growing in places with cool summers. How are they in your digs. Also some off those mexican salvias like Black & Blue and Salvia Lolly Jackson or Salvia mexicana "limelight". They might be tender for your area, but they were killer in town where the soil was nicer. I guess I am channeling salvias today.