Stress testing - Ice Cream Social

For some time now (since 1991) I've been taking a few pots of newly sprouted 
seedlings and leavin' 'em in the pots until only one of the seedlings 
survived. This started partially just for fun and the rest was from being lazy.

Someone else handles the stress testing of introduced irises for me.

Last night the Big Guy in the sky decided to help with his part of the the 
stess testing of a few irises. He started laughin' a lot and flashin' his 
million watt grin often. The weather man on TV said we were havin' severe weather 
and started his normal scare tactics, but I knew different about what was really 
happenin'. I'm tellin' you the Big Guy laughed so loud and often the wind 
speeds hit 50 mph. I was pretty happy about all this since successes here have 
always been based on a high level of divine intervention.

About 5:30 this mornin' it got light enough that I would not trip on all the 
weeds stakin' out territory on the now slick paths. I put on the felt hat 
cause the straw one wouldn't do much for my all but bald head in the light rain 
that was now fallin'. I even took a tape measure. You see, there was a tall iris 
out there, new to here, that had been bloomin' for over a week.

Not only had that iris been bloomin' out there, it had the highest bud count 
of any iris that had bloomed here this year. So many buds in fact that it more 
often then not had three blooms open at a time for nearly two weeks on one of 
its stalks. Nothin' ever does that here. Maybe nothin' ever does that 
anywhere. I ain't yet been everywhere.

Ice Cream Social stood all the stressin' right well. It did not fall even 
with the bloom loaded, water logged stalk and all the pollen tags I'd stuck it 
with.

I didn't know how to discribe the color to yawl, so I wrote that Hensler girl 
to get her discription.

She said:
"Ice Cream Social was introduced last year. #PC-E1 (PACE CAR X ELECTRIQUE)

37" Mid to Late season; Standards: very pale cream pink; Stylearms: dark
cream with light yellow-gold edges; Falls: very pale cocoa pink with
orange-red beard.

>From our breeding program for "art colors" on a plant that withstands
everything our wild spring weather can dish out. She was also selected for
leaf spot resistance. :-)"

Now, I'm tellin' yawl that woman is lyin'. That iris hit 42" inches on my 
tape measure and you can't describe the color or this irise's appeal!

Smiles,
Bill Burleson

Excerpted from a Spaceage Robin post:
Another point in passin', if you do not have Ice Cream Social, get it! Triple 
sockets on most every terminal, tall, strong, heavy, stately, stalks. The 
color cannot be described and my camera still has no battery. Grows ever so well. 
Get it! And yes, I put some PG (Praetorian Guard) on one or two of it's 
blooms. Mostly though, it got pollen from (Lemon Chess x Change Your Ways).

Old South Iris Society members oohed, aahed, clamored, and stumbled over each 
other to get just a promise of an Ice Cream Social sometime, anytime in the 
future when we got together last night. All that was from seein' it's worst 
stalk.
Smiles,
Bill Burleson

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