HYB: Other Tough Cultivars

Nell, Thanks for your imput.  When the iris start blooming I start 
remembering other good toughies.  MARY FRANCES, T. Burseen's WHERE THERE'S SMOKE.  
Actually THORNBIRD is prolific and tough but I don't care for the color or the "new 
age" appendages.  Come to think of it the few space age iris I grow are 
almost 100% tough.  MESMERIZER, SNOW FLURRY, SKY HOOKS to name a few.  
I finally numbered my iris beds (25) and am determined to keep better notes 
this year.  I have lost so many tags and set so many seedlings amongst the 
named ones that the ones I can't identify I mark with a numbered plastic fork in a 
similar color.  I have a notebook and a couple of pages for each bed.  So the 
first to bloom in bed 5, for instance, I note either as #1 or by name and am 
noting #of stalks, branches, spurs, buds etc.  That way I can use #1 as many 
as 25 times and still keep track.  One year I tried numbering and labeling the 
unknowns without noting where they were located.  I soon couldn't remember the 
last number I used.
Several years ago I was visiting some property that a friend had just 
purchased.  Where the old home site had been were a few wispy iris here and there.  
She asked me what they were.  I told her I had no idea.  As a matter of fact I 
wasn't sure they were even bearded iris as the leaves were quite tall and 
thin.  I took a rhizome home and threw it in a non-draining container.  It rained 
and the rhizome sat in water for a couple of weeks in steamy July.  It was 
still alive so I went ahead and set it out.  Imagine my surprise when it perked 
up, increased, fattened up and bloomed the next spring and was undoubtedly 
WILLIAM SETCHEL.  

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