I've been "planning" to divide my old irises since June, but whoa! What a chore! Not sure my legs and back can stand it. There are Irises everywhere (that's one plant that can grow really well in Oklahoma). They have multiplied so much that they are stacked on top of each other like turtles on a log in a pond on a hot day!!! I have way too many of the two-toned red-violet ones and purple with red-violet falls. They are the most prolific reproducers I have. Man they multiply! I am going to take all the extras out and toss them out along the highway grader ditches leading in and out of town. This town is about dried up and dead. We need something to bring people here. How about an Iris Festival in May every year? The downtown streets are extra wide - built back in the cowboy days, so there is plenty of room. Irises blooming all over downtown and all along the highway coming into town? A small investment for the town in general if everyone divides up their irises and just tosses some of them out along the highway. And it wouldn't take any time at all before it could become a reality....don't you think? Anyway, that is my pipe dream. They always bloom so beautifully the following year after being divided and reset that it almost makes the horrific job & back pain bearable...well, almost. Annie

Shirley, I was about to email you to let you know mine is heavily budded as well and I expect blooms in a few days!! Yahoo!! For those of you who have a passion for iris beyond the common beardeds and who have a bit of a shady area, this is a great plant to include in your garden. Reminds me a bit of Iris japonica on steroids!! But bait for slugs or snails - of any iris I have grown, they seem to love the foliage on this guy more than any other!!

I think I'm done digging and moving plants for the year. But I should have plants to share in the spring. I'd say PM me, but I don't know if that's a feature here.

Maryl , How interesting ! I have that grape jelly smelling iris !!!! It is very old I have had it for probably 25 years here , don't at all remember where I got it from but it is a much stronger cultivar than many of the new intros. Never knew the name. I call it my Grape Koolaid Iris because of the smell. I find it interesting that sometimes the smell of an iris is linked to the color . I have an orange iris that definitely smells like orange.