Re: TDF Iris


>1.  What iris can you not live without?
>2.  Describe it
>3.  Tell us WHY you love it
>4.  And don't forget to tell us where you live - city/state,province/zone

Fun question, Kathy!
The one TB I cannot do without is STEPPING OUT. I know it's getting old now
and there are similar purple and white plicatas with larger blooms, but
this little trouper will always be my darling. It was among the first six
iris I ever planted, and when I neglected that planting for 10 years and
let it suffer drought and become overrun by briar rose and bermuda grass,
SO tried its best to keep blooming - for years. It was the first plant in
the group that forgave me immediately when I began treating my iris with
respect.
And it was the only iris from that group whose name I remember. How could I
not remember such a distinctive bloom?
SO flowers and increases faithfully. Last year I dug several clumps a year
early to make a contribution to our club sale. There were a few fingerling
rhizomes of SO I just couldn't donate, they were so puny, so I put them in
my mixed bed with the roses and the veronica, where they were promptly
scooped out by crickets. I want you to know each of those scooped-out
fingerling rhizomes is blooming in my yard right now - in fact, all told,
SO has been blooming in my yard close to three weeks.
STEPPING OUT is my kind of plant. Yeah, STEPPING OUT!


celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas, USDA Zone 7b
257 feet above sea level, annual average rainfall more than 49 inches and
year-round average relative humidity (6 a.m. reading) 84% (we have lots of
trees). Temps shoot into the mid- to high-90s at the peak of summer and dip
to the 20s and 30s most winters, although we can and do go to greater
extremes in both regards. Rapid changes are no big surprise here.
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