Bearded Iris and roses

You've still got quite a few in flower Abbi. I love taffeta Bow, and the markings on Liason and Vibrations. Pulsar is a stunner too.

Liason is similar to Gracious Curves, not quite so wide or ruffled.

Yes, there are still a few out, Val. Mostly purples and yellows now.

Most of my Early ones flowered, and midseason ones did OK, but no late season at all. I wonder why? (Still waiting and hoping LOL!)

Abbi, I am with Val. Mine have stopped so perhaps they are late ones and might flower. I live in hope.

I have only one left to open... the others need more time to settle in here and I assume after another year of growing all will flower just fine Started cleaning them up today and found lots of pods Looking forward to seeing how they turn out!

What puzzles me is that ones that flowered last year haven't done so this year. The leaves look fine and they're not in too much shade or buried too deeply.
Perhaps they are empathising with the roses which have not grown well this year.

We have another wet week ahead, and I'm getting paranoid about the irises rotting in the wet. Today I went around and scraped off the soil from around the rhizome where the leaves grow. Some of the new ones haven't got much of a rhizome as yet. I pulled out all the dead leaves as they could act as a mulch.
I am fully aware that the temperatures could zoom up in a week or two, and you can picture me rushing around covering up the exposed bits so that they don't burn!

Yes, I am nuts, I don't need telling!

Just as i thought mine were all out another black one appears. It will be Night Magic, Black tie affair or superstition. Have to look more closely tommorrow.

Simon, I should have asked at the beginning of the season if you wanted any pods. I've been composting them. Perhaps you wanted some?

That's fine Abbi... maybe next year. I'm going to experiment with the ones I have (got a few now) and see how it goes. I have also heard that bee pods are rare and the ones that develop without direct pollination are what they call balloons and contain no seeds. So they may be empty anyway Abbi. This will be the first time I've bothered collecting them so if it's too much of a hassle I don't reckon I'll pursue it now the rose seedlings/pollinations are taking off. If it's easy then I'll go for it I was hoping to lift a few this weekend but didn't get around to it... I need to divide quite a few now.

I have spent a lot of time today digging up the irises that weren't thriving out of the beds. Some of them I've had for more than 2 years and have never grown much or flowered at all.
If they show signs of picking up in the smallish pots I'll transfer them to large pots next year.

A few stragglers coming out now.... just dribs and drabs... and slowly...

This one is 'Patriotic Heart' (I swear iris namers need to do a better job ):

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Ok everyone, is the iris a monocote, why I ask this is, a lady asked if she could spray Fusilade over them to kill/slow up couch grass. A rose is a dicot, one would assume

dicot

Thanks Simon.

Here is my first one for this year.

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Mine have only just started growing... lost a few this year to rot.

I have a lot of empty spaces as well Simon. I think it will be a while before I get any more flowers looking at the plants.

First ones of the year.. the dwarf iris have appeared first this year!

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'Hussy'

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'Might Mouse' is tiny! Flowers about 5cm across on a plant about 15cm tall.

They are lovely. The black one is amazing.
We dont have any Dwarf's but some of our tall one's are now in bud.

No buds at all on our big ones or intermediates yet... just some of the littlies

Was planning a rose bed reno last night (not a lot to do when the power is out for hours at night - was reduced to reading rose catalgues with a torch) and Mum said "why don't you put Irises in the bed with them".
And I thought of this thread. Hehehe
I'll have to go searching through the weeds and see if our Iris survived this year.

I really like the first one too.

How are yours going Karen ? I have lots of buds. I am so looking forward to them flowering.

We grabed some bearded iris from an open garden in Renmark last October and are waiting with baited breath to see if they flower in our conditions. They are alive and groing but no sign of flowers yet.

Gary, we have a friend in Cooktown and the one's that we sent are about to flower, so I guess yours will, David.