Here in zone 4, with the tall bearded iris long finished as well as the peonies, in all the beds I do have echoed plantings - or at least variations on a theme. My daylilies (other than Stella d'Oros which have just finished their first big flush) are now cranking up and blooming with the last of the Asiatic lilies, Walkers Low nepeta, blue platycodon, pink baby's breath, sedums yet to show color, and feverfew. I don't like anything to overtake the peonies; the Walkers Low could, but it has such a lovely wispy aspect, you can see the peony blooms through it. Annual fill ins carry me through until the first killing frost - get a lot of bang for the buck with petunias, statice (Limonium Sinuatum), osteospermum, alyssum, impatiens, pansies, dianthus Chinensis... Our season is pretty short for the "ever blooming" daylilies - do get another light round or two on the Stellas. And might get the same kind of repeat if I had the Happy Returns, Happy Ever Appster, Ruby Stella, etc. etc. Ever bloomning is kind of a joke for me, but I suppose a scape or two each with a bud or two counts. :-) The tall garden phlox haven't started yet and the scattered stands of Lilium Tigrinum are just about to explode - both those carry well into September.

If your freinds are worthy of your iris, they will wait for the proper time to plant them. :) :) :) Honestly, I have a friend who loves iris, but who is forever digging up her flower beds. Each years she digs up something and moves it, and then wonders why things don't bloom doh. I won't give her iris because by July, she's forgotten that she asked fo it all and it's too hot yadda yadda. She's one of those fly by nighters who just wants to plant in the spring. feh. One spring she ordered iris from Mid-America, not understanding that the iris wouldn't ship until July. Well, by July she was cranky and didn't want the iris, so I took it and planted in a community garden bed. Believe me, I had better things to do than plant her bloody iris, but I couldn't let these nice ones (Aardvark Lark! Starship Enterprise!) go unplanted and I didn't have any space at all.

Hey Rita, Boy, can I ever relate to not having much space! I will tell you that I have no choice but to grow iris close together, and they have always done beautifully for me. Right now, in my main bed of iris, there are lots of summer blooming annuals--zinnias and cosmos. Larkspur grows really early here, and my first iris start blooming in late April, so those two looked really nice together. When you see photos from Schreiner's they always have lupines growing with the iris. I grow Sea Power and love it. It is a beautiful flower. Keppel and Joe Ghio have a lot of ruffled iris. Check out Adoregon and Kitty Kay from Keppel and Forever Blowing Bubbles by Ghio. I grew FBB this year and was blown away by its garden presence, and My Beloved looks like an even bigger, more dramatic version, though I haven't ordered it. Good luck, Mike in SC

What kind of irises? If you want beardeds, especially rebloomers, the very best is Winterberry Gardens just past Leesburg. That's Don & Ginny Spoon, (1-540-888-4447, vspoon@aol.com). Lovely people, very friendly. If you want spurias, japanese or louisianas, Sans Souci irises in Monkton MD is a great source. Bruce Hornstein (lbh0125@emailman.com 410 557-0250) Nicholls Gardens in Gainsville is not bad: Diana Nicholls sells all kinds of irises plus peonies. I'm not sure I believe all her claims for local rebloom, though. 703-754-9623. That said, I have bought many of my rebloomers from Sutton's in CA -- their rebloom chart is fairly accurate, so that if they list an iris as a reliable rebloomer in Z6, it will probably rebloom for me, and you can't beat the prices on their "sunset list" cultivars. And it's too bad you missed the local AIS sale at Meadowlark Gdns a couple weeks back... Lynn Lynn