Thanks Susan--I feel so boring up here--no fancy pipevines or gulf frits! :) I have a couple pics I took the other day: one was a sooty azure and an Appalcahian Brown. I'll post later. Thank you for the encouragement! I saw the Milbert's in June on some chive flowers. I know that he or she is still around--it always flies away from me when I approach a certain garden and goes into a stand of trees. Very frustrating. White Admirals come around pretty frequently. I've just started taking my camera around with me once or twice in the afternoons, so I'll keep posting. Thanks for the encouragemet!

I had JN for about 2 years until my DH put up the dog fence and they killed her! So sad! She was a beauty! Huge blooms but only about 15 inches from what I remember cause I had her on the edge of the deck border. Ginny

Sweet! I can't wait to see it in full bloom. Moved to this house in November and it was already planted here, so it'll be my first time to see these in bloom. I plan to transfer some of it around the burning bushes next spring, will look pretty together in the fall I think.

Each rhizome will only bloom once, but there may be more than one rhizome blooming at the same time in a clump. Make sure you wait until all of the stalks in the clump have finished blooming before you dig the clump to divide it. I would also caution you against planting similarly colored irises together (unless they are the same cultivar). If you plant the irises too closely together or allow them to grow into each other before you divide again, it will be considerably more difficult to tell which is which if they are too similar. Also, irises that are too similar tend to compete with, rather than complement, each other. Whereas a purple planted next to a white will make both stand out, that same purple planted next to a more attractive purple will look weak and lackluster. Just my opinion, of course. Laurie