Oz bloom report

Dear All,
 
What a great season we are enjoying!  We hit peak bloom this weekend, with many thousands of bloom to enjoy.  Many are five-year old clumps now, and look great when all in bloom.  All are LA unless advised otherwise.
 
Of particular interest have been several re-selects from previous years.  We didn't want to discard them, but didn't want to name them right away either.  Our patience has been rewarded.  
 
One white self has blooms 7" across.  The style arms are green, and the veining is green too.  However, the tips of the style arms are pure white, and on each and every bloom on the five-year old clump, have been turning back.  Haven't seen this on anything else in the garden.  We are off to NZ in about a month to attend the wedding of two dear friends, so have decided to name the iris 'WAIHI WEDDING" in their honour.  Waihi is the very small town where they live, which is right near TE AROHA (the other NZ-named ris that we have released).
 
A 1994 cross has produced a great gingery orange self.  Each spike has six multi-budded bud places and two branches.  Blooms galore - and has been flowering for three weeks now.  Had my friends Ann Hordern and Janet Hutchinson visiting the garden earlier in the week and both like it too, ssooooo, will be named.
 
CHARLOTTE'S TUTU is growing in two large clumps, and has been putting on a great show.  Lots of cerise pink froth.
 
LA STUPENDA and its sister ANN HORDERN (both soft pinks with lemon washes) are starting, and taking most of our attention. We sit under a large live oak tree to have our lunch and have planted La S and AH nearby so that we can enjoy them. 
 
JAZZ HOT has been a blaze of smoky red passion.  It's sibs. FIGHTING SPIRIT (deep maroon self), PRINCESS LEIA (hot cerise pink), HOT AND SPICY (tomato red self), VOLCANIC WILDFIRE (lava-like sunset shades), CYCLAMINT (deep cyclamen with mint green centre), PAMELA CAMERON (a sunset toned beauty with lime green styles which have butter yellow tips) and JOIE DE VIVRE (intense red violet of carved wax-type substance) have been filling the garden with 200+ rhizome clumps of colour.
 
The intensely dark purple/black self GARNET STORM DANCER has been putting on a great show in its three garden locations.  The bees go crazy around it, and look like they have had "one too many" as they haphazardly try to fly away laden down with too much pollen and zig zag their way over the garden to their nearby hive.
 
Our crisp white CRUSHED ICE has been great this year.  WE have it in three locations also, and each large clump has been a mass of white shimmering bloom.
 
A 1991 cross, SORRENTO MOON is a luminous full moon shaped cream (or perhaps winter white?) self.  We have held this one back for several seasons to be sure that it is good enough and performs with good foliage every season and this year it has been absolutely suberb.  It's cream colouring has an opalescent sheen to it.  Bernard makes a bee line for it every time we go to the garden and just stands there and says "I love it, I love it...." so it gets the go ahead now.
 
FROSTED MOONBEAM has also been giving it's best display every this year.  This creamy white, ruffled self looks like it has been sprinkled with moon dust.  Knockout stuff!!  We have had some trouble keeping up a supply of stock for this one.
 
We have finally decided on the contender for the "RUBY SLIPPERS" name.  There were three or four that we were considering, but the winner is really the best.  Shorter, growing this ruby red self is so ruffled that the style arms have trouble getting out until the second day of blooming.  Lemon reverse and a yellow dagger signal complete the picture.
 
Bernard's shorter-growing "Water Sprite" range (less than 30") is coming into its own.  His cerise self with white rim and reverse LOVE ME DO was blooming with gay abandon today.  The clump is 12 feet long.    His mauve HEIRLOOM AMETHYST is very ruffled and the great bud placement will set this one apart in years to come, I think.  It has been in bloom for four weeks now.   The soft pink MISCHIEF MAKER was also blooming well, but will be re-planted in a new area in autumn to give it more room to grow.    A sib. ALICIA CLARE (not released until 2000) is a very ruffled cream self.  A seedling flowered for the first time this year and the bloom was not much larger than a US silver dollar, and was 17" tall.  Will re-assess it next year for height and size, but it's looking good at present.
 
Many more to talk about, but will leave it here for the time being.  I am off to the ISA convention on Tuesday so will leave Bernard in charge of the computer.  Will guarantee that you will enjoy his postings - his sense of humour is very appealing, as many of you have already experienced.
 
Cheers for now.  Heather Pryor  i*@pip.com.au
From the Land of Oz and Iris
 
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