IB: First Ever Iris Bloom For Us!

Yo! hoicks and huzzah! as my mom used to say (anyone know where that 
originated?) GOLDEN MUFFIN (IB, Niswonger 1986) bloomed, albeit a bit  
short (8 1/2", should be 24"!) on Thursday, May 8! It was up to the top 
of its fan, but the two side fans are about twice as tall.  We have 4 TB 
bloomstalks coming on; I think they will bloom in this order: Blue 
Staccato, Phantom Mist, Hands Up, and Breakers.

Linda Mann, I am jealous! You have all that bloom already, and you're in 
a frost pocket too! We have had unseasonable cold all Spring, and it's 
been very dry, too, until this week when we got a really good soaking 
rain all day Wednesday. Our Iris Show is next weekend, and we may 
actually have some bloomstalks to bring! But I think the bulk of 
whatever blooms on our one-year plants will be later. I hope to do some 
hybridizing, but we'll see. Maybe I can save some Breakers pollen for 
one of the later bloomers. I'm hoping that little Immortality, which I 
got in February, will bloom later this year too. I got 4 TBs in February 
at the big Lawn and Garden Show in Springfield: Immortality, Jesse's 
Song, Lady Friend, and Edith Wolford. All are doing fine, except a 
couple of them lost their central fans, but the other fans are growing 
strongly. (I put Comet on them).

Re losses: most of those that rotted were historics from Montana, 6 out 
of 32 rhizomes. TB Frontier Marshall bit the dust too, but that was a 
local purchase. TB Black Tie Affair, from our auction, lost its fan and 
I brought it in and put Comet on it and let it sit and dry out for 
awhile before putting it back out. Maybe it will decide to put down 
roots? Other than those, the rhizomes from the local sale are going 
great. Of the 15 tiny babies Larry Doucette sent, I have 6 growing 
vigorously, and the rest rotted away. The 3 fans of SDB Raspberry Jam 
from him are growing slowly, but no bloom on the biggest one yet. Well, 
there's always next year. The President of our local Society lives in a 
heat sink in Springfield, and her bloom is about over with! She said 
she'd be lucky to have anything for the show. Her sister down the 
street, on the other hand, didn't have any bloom yet at that time! I 
guess our area is like all the others, with lots of different 
microclimates. 

We are proud that one of our local members of the Iris Society of the 
Ozarks has an ad in the Shopping Section of the April Bulletin for the 
first time! Check out Nicodemus Iris Gardens. 

Well, it's good to be back online. Our monitor broke in February and we 
couldn't get it fixed or replaced, so we bought another one in April. We 
were down from 2/18 until 4/23, and there were 3229 messages waiting for 
me when I went back on! I started downloading at 4 a.m. Wednesday 4/23, 
and it took just about an hour, after being thrown off only once by our 
ISP. So I have really been having a ball trying to catch up. Haven't 
read ALL of them yet, but am slowly reading and sorting them, and 
keeping up with the new ones.

Happy Bloomtime, Everyone!

Love to all, Barb

Barb Johnson     ljohnson@cland.net
Southwest Missouri Ozarks     USDA Zone 5b     AIS Region 18 (MO & KS)
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index