JI; ADMIN: Attachments; thanks for CULT help

Hi iris-talkers,

A gentle reminder that text attachments aren't any more welcome than graphics. For those of us who get the list in digest form, the onelist software strips them out.  So I never saw the picture from the Pryors, which I'm sure was lovely and hope to see at a web site somewhere in the future, and I missed getting Kathy G's hosta friend's response on grape pomace.

Thanks to all who gave advice on my unplanted TB rhizomes.  As it happens, the day I posted I was driven to my bed by a severe bout of bronchitis (for a week of the most wonderful gardening weather of the year -- sob!) followed by uninvited house guests (with two dogs yet).  So I'm going to hope very hard that these will be plantable in the spring if stored in a cool but not freezing spot.  Will let you know next summer.

Now to my real purpose in writing:  Japanese iris. I can always tell when winter is really coming on because I develop strong interests in things I've never grown before.   My only JI so far has been one that I grow for its foliage, I. ensata variegata (also apparently registered as SILVER STREAK or something like that).  

But now I'd like to try some JIs for their flowers.  After reading McEwen's book, and looking at pictures on web pages etc., I realize that I have a very definite preference for singles, particularly those of the 'Edo' form, with non-overlapped, falling falls and a minimum of ruffling.   What I can pick up from catalogs and web pages, and my own knowledge of other heavily hybridized plants, tells me that fashion in the JI world runs strongly in the other direction.  So I'd really appreciate suggestions of cultivars to look for that have the grace and simplicity of ITAKO (World of Irises p. 259), SORCERER's TRIUMPH (Kohlein p. 212), or POPULAR ACCLAIM (McEwen plate 25).

I'll be sending for the Ensata and Draycott catalogs soon, but suggestions for other good JI sources would also be welcome.

I can't go in terribly heavily for Japanese iris because of the limestone base of our soil (those darned ledges!), but I'm willing to do some small-area acidifying to grow a few whose beauty makes it worthwhile.  Please don't give me any tips about children's wading pools or the like; I have most of those notes from IRIS-L and I succeed much better with plants that I put in the ground.

So: what have been your most beautiful and successful single, non-flared-falls Japanese iris?

Nell

Nell Lancaster, Lexington VA     USDA zone 6b       <nlancaster@rockbridge.net>
20F last night, with ice in the stock tanks this morning....

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