CULT: info sought

The "dab" of snow we got last night turned into another 6-8" by this
morn, for a local total over 3' in the past few days -- gack! (Kathy
Haggstrom, you're right about altitude being the culprit, tho for once
Denver got what we did last night.)  Embarrassingly, I got my 4X4 stuck
in the glop in our driveway & had to be fetched by my daughter -- SHE
has a snowplow on HER truck. 

We were determined to get down to the NARGS sale at Denver Botanic
Gardens -- indoors fortunately, because the gardens were pretty well
snow-spangled. The sun was out all day so it's merrily melting & we did
get to see some bloom before we left, mostly spring bulbs. Typically, 
spring conditions at the DBG are a month ahead of our foothills area --
it's Zone 5, we're 4.

This NARGS sale is a justifiably famous one & if you like mini & dwarf
plants you can get into a lot of trouble. My daughter is just *starting*
to construct a rock garden & I behaved pretty well too because I prefer
plants I don't have to crawl around in order to see. We both, natch,
found plants we couldn't pass up...

For instance, I bought a pot with multi-starts of BANBURY RUFFLES, a
bright purple PCN hybrid that we saw today in vigorous flower (despite
snow) in the xeric garden at DBG. I'm not certain it'll be cold-hardy
for me -- anyone have any advice to offer? Full sun or some shade? (our
sunlight is intense...) Plunk it in a warm pocket of boulders? Put it
where it gets dependable snow cover or dries out occassionaly during the
winter? I presume it's a Brummitt intro but know nothing further.

My other plea for advice concerns tiny SPUs I bought 2 years ago --
labeled "Seashore Iris", I. spuria usulmania. The 2 starts have survived
here but never bloomed & I can't say they've thrived either as there are
no signs of increase. I have them in gravely soil in full sun -- leaves
look healthy enough but wonder what else I can do to make these minis
happy so they'll flower. I don't have any other SPUs yet so don't have
any experience growing them here.

TIA for any help you can give me on these 2 obscure irises.

Marte in the mtns	Zone 4/Sunset 1  Colorado -- where I overheard a
conversation between a local & a visitor, the latter saying she thot all
the snow looked pretty. The local just looked at the visitor & then said
'I refuse to address that comment...'
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