This is the other place I bought my fancy trumpet hybrids. The plan when I redid the driveways sideyard always was to plant lillies between some of the daylilies there. But it was too late last spring to do it after I got all the daylilies done. And in the fall I was too tired of planting to do anymore as I had gotten carried away with myself and started buying and planting daylilies again in August. The good part is that hopefully all those daylilies I planted last year (over 200 for the seasons total) should bloom for me this year. Plus I have not lost too much as spring planted lilies bloom just fine that same year. Here is a link that might be useful: B&D Lilies

Pippi- Siberians are really easy once they get established. They don't need any more water than any other plant once they get going. However, most of my garden is heavily mulched and the Sibs just love that, unlike the beardless which I had to do special mini gardens for (no mulch). That one in the picture I put the wrong tag on so I don't know right now what it is. It is a modern one (and large flowered) that I bought two years ago, not Caesers Brother which is a very old variety, that I know for sure. The blue flowers in the backround are catmint, Walkers Low. It is a fantastic perennial that flowers all year long. Plant those Lupines! I just love lupines! thyme- I have about 200 tall bearded but bought most of them only last year so many are new. What records? I just use a plant name tag for each one so I know what it is when I want. Do the same with my daylilies.

I could not keep Japanese Iris in the pond year round here, it would freeze solid and die. I did try one Japanese Iris which I bought when I bought my Siberians and it looks to be doing very well. The iris people say to treat a Japanese Iris like your most expensive daylily and they will do fine. Or to plant them with your daylilies and they will do fine. Just means they need to be watered just like our daylilies do if there is no rain. But I doubt that I will be getting anymore Japanese Iris. They just don't grab me the way many other things do. Just as well, I already have enough plants on my crazies list. As to Spuria, I think they are really beautiful. The flowers remind me of Dutch Iris, which I also intend to plant this fall. I again, tried one Spuria (ADRIATIC BLUE) which I bought with one of my Siberian Iris purcheses. Not sure how its doing yet, doesn't look as good as the JI, which I think are going to be easy. If I don't kill the darn Spuria, I would like to try more.

Hmmm - I rather thought all of Lauries questions were relevant: Where did you acquire the Sibs? At a yard sale where they had been in a box dried out for several days? In a plastic package at walmart? (do they do that?) Dug or pulled roughly from a friends garden clump? All could spell disaster. How did you handle them before you planted them? Leaving them out of the ground for too long, or dividing them into too small sections will cause problems. In what sort of soil did you plant them and did you fertilize them? Very relevant. They prefer moist, friable soil, but not too wet. They are NOT "water iris", Too much wet will kill them. What is your soil pH? They prefer a slightly acid soil, but will tolerate some lime. I would think that they would be at there most susceptible right after planting, rather than several years down the track. How much sunlight were they getting? Maybe more relevant as far as bloom, but they won't grow in heavy shade. How deeply did you plant them? It is common belief that you should plant irises like Ducks sitting on the water. If this method was used for siberians they wouldn't last long. If they were planted too deep they probably wouldn't make it either. Did you mulch them? Mulch can shift and smother. How much and how often did you water them? Either too much or too little will cause problems. What were your temps like within a month after planting? here in Australia we plant Siberians in late Autumn. Our summers would do far more damage to new plants than our winters here. Once they are established, a clump will last reasonably well with minimal water through summer, but new divisions would most likely die. Typically plants good sized divisions planted in Autumn will have increased well by Summer, and may even flower here. They certainly should be showing some green by Spring, and if not, can be presumed dead.