Re: OT-BIO: Beginner suggestions

Jeri,

I'm 50 miles east of Abilene in Zone 7b.  BREAKERS, PORTRAIT OF LARRIE,
SHINING WATERS (a 1933 model), BUSY BEING BLUE (early bloomer) have all done
well for consecutive seasons here.  A new one that bloomed here this year
for the first time, but it's second season and shows great promise is SUDDEN
IMPACT.  All of these are blue toned, from light to darker.  A blue purple
that's dark and grows like a weed is another old one, SUSA, a smaller IB
instead of TB.  It's a prolific bloomer and an aggressively growing plant so
might be best to give it room if you get it.

Currently, the shade from the oak trees is proving beneficial here.  Irises
like sun - but the fans on mine that are in full sun starting bleaching and
showing the effects of sunburn after the sun and heat they got yesterday.
Last summer and the summer before they turned a pale yellow-green from the
effects of the full sun here.  Those in the shade have fared better and
suffered less here.  In our sunny clime, when grown under deciduous trees
where they start growing ahead of the trees leafing out, they grow and bloom
pretty well and tend to be healthier clumps than those that can't get a
break from direct sun daybreak to sundown.  If it is total shade, though,
then I think you might have less bloom on weaker, floppier stalks.  But if
they can get 3-4 hours of sun and then dappled shade from a high canopy of
the tree, I think they'll do fine.  I see plantings in this area directly
under the shade trees all the time and there is no visible diminishing of
the number of bloomstalks when they bloom.  It would, in my opinion,
certainly be worth trying to grow some iris in what would surely be too much
shade in other parts of the country.

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA



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