Hi Weeper =:)

I have an order form sitting here for the past couple of weeks or so. I had posted questions about my choices but I guess nobody had time and/or was interested in my questions, boo, hoo....

Have you ordered from Chapman's before this time? How long does shipping take? Do you have any of the following, and do you think they go together?

Atumn Jester
Counting Sheep
Crystal Carpet
Forever Blue
Lighten Up

I'm new at this Iris thing, except for ones that were already here when we bought the house.

BTW How did your gladiolas make out? I'm betting you've got lots of blooms by now....

I think the order just took a couple of days to get here...the plants themselves were quite dry, and turning yellow, but the rhizomes and roots looked great. I soaked them in water for about an hour and planted them right away.

This was my first order from Chuck...this is only my second summer with my garden. But I've heard he is the best in Canada, he has such awesome selection, and he seems quite generous with his extras and substitutions. Just make sure you give him a list of substitutes you would be happy with, unless you just want your money back..otherwise he just picks whatever.

I don't have any of your list, but your Forever Blue is a parent of my Forever Violet. I think your choices would look GREAT together...all shades of bluey-purple and that yellow will just pop, if you plant them together. Have you already sent your form in? Because Counting Sheep is already sold out unfortunately...and the Bearded irises should be planted soon in our climate to get the guarantee.

If you have already sent your form, did you send it awhile before July 15? If you do, you get a bonus.

My glads are slowly, SLOWLY starting to bud out. Actually, only the one clump is. My fringed coral lace were in a nice hot sunny spot, and they are budding out pretty good. My Black Jack looks kind of sad though...some of the plants near it got a bit too big and I don't think it got as much sun as it should have...it'll be very late blooming if it blooms at all. I'll probably try again with glads next year though, depending on how nice the blooms are. But I'm not going to put them in the perennial bed..I think I'll stick them in the vegetable garden and keep them purely for cut flowers.

Oops.

I guess the best time to order has passed for my zone. Darn it living in Saskatchewan. I guess " Snooze you Lose" applies here =:)

I'll look forward to pictures of everyone else's in the spring, and order really early next year.

I ordered from Chapmans this year (3rd time) and just got an email to say they`re being shipped today. The first time I was very happy, the second time I wasn`t really excited about the substitutions, but this time I made a long sub list so I`m pretty optimistic to see what comes.

I have a lot of sympathy for Chuck selling irises. I have traded irises to friends that I SWEAR were the right one and they weren`t. They are slippery little things, always switching places and then some years you get a bad spring and they don`t bloom or the frost heaves them and they don`t multiply like they should.

I personally know a grower in Manitoba who quit selling irises because they were such a headache to keep straight.

Don't feel bad nutsaboutflowers...I completely forgot to order what daylilies I wanted until they weren't shipping them anymore!! Guess that is one more thing that will have to wait until next year...

As for being disappointed with substitutions..I guess I should have known to make a bigger list of good substitutes; I'm sure he doesn't like just picking ones for us, because he knows that we might not be totally happy with our order. He doesn't pick cheap ones necessarily though, which is nice. I'm not actually very disappointed, in the past mislabels and "crappy" substitutes have turned out to be really awesome plants -some of my favorites. I used to hate yellow flowers in my bed, for instance, I got a mislabeled one, and now I have lots of yellow.

I do wish he could give freebee siberians rather than bearded though...I find siberians less finicky!

Have MANY irises coming in the next couple of days from Bob and Ann at Trails End. My order from Chuck is probably soon on it's way as well since my cheque cleared today.

There is a list of the extras Chuck offers on his site if you look under ordering info. He actually asks for your preferences.

Weeper - Buckskin Babe and Warchief are both beautiful in bloom especially planted together! Besides, is there really such a thing as an ugly iris??

Nutsaboutflowers - I didn't see your message and am sorry I didn't. Couldn't help you with your choices but I certainly would have let you know that I support you in whatever choices you make. :) Irises are ALWAYS a good choice!

This is my second year ordering from both of these growers and have been very impressed so far.

If I can ever get the rest of my pics over to photobucket, I will let you know.

Ginny
Certified Iris Addict

Weeper, you really don't need to order 3 of one kind, they spread in no time ;)
When I order I only order one rhizome, because within 2-3 yrs, you'll be dividing like crazy.

This is what I ordered/ traded this year ;)

2009
Botanus
DREAMING OF YOU
MIDNIGHT OIL (gift)
HARVEST OF MEMORIES

Garden Import
PINK HAZE
DREAMING SPIRE

Brenda
sibirica Blue King
sibirica Dear Delight
sibirica Painted Dessert
sibirica Baby Sister
sibirica Ottawa
#1 NOID - SDB
DINKY DOODLE SDB
JOANNA TAYLOR MDB
TIPPY SDB

SHELLEY TRADE
SDB
ABSOLUTE JOY
CITY NEON
CLEVER TOUCH
CONEY ISLAND
FRENTIC
GIMMICK
GYPSY EYES
INCENDIARY
MICKY LIKES IT
NOID
NOID WHITE
PULSE RATE
SUMMER RECALL
IB
DELIGHTFUL KID

Susan Trade
3 kinds of Noids

Chapman Iris

MDB
CHEMISTRY
TRIFLE
WIGGLE

SDB
AMUSING
ARTFUL
BLACK LIGHTNING (EXTRA)
BLUE HAT BOY (GIFT)
CONUNDRUM (SUBSTITUTION)
CRYTAL CARPET
CURIOUS ORCHID
EASY DOES IT
FLIGHT DIRECTOR
GINGERBREAD TRIM (SUBSTITUTION)
JANE'S PALLETTE
KIWI WINE
LOOKOUT SUNSHINE (EXTRA)
MIDNIGHT MIST
SHOW ME YELLOW (GIFT)

IB
ALBERTA CLIPPER
THIS AND THAT

BB
CROW'S FEET

TB
ACOMA (GIFT)
ERAMOSA RIDGE (EXTRA)
HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS
MOUNT ROYAL ( I choose this one because I went to Mount Royal highschool in Saskatoon )
NEON COWBOY
SCORPIO STAR (GIFT)
STARLIT VELVET

Chuck TB TRIAL(2 EACH)(many of these I have already but this is a hardiness/planting method trial.)
BUCKSKIN BABE
BLUE SHIMMER
EAGLE CONTROL
ERAMOSA BLUSHING BRIDE
GARDEN BRIDE
IMMORTALITY
MASTERWORKS
RED REVIVAL
UNDERSTUDY
WARCHIEF

SIBERIAN IRIS
AUSABLE RIVER
DARK DESIRE
EMPEROR
I. TYPIFOLIA
MAGNUM BORDEAUX
SAPPHIRE ROYAL
SMOOTH SEAS
SPRINKLES
TYCOON

SPURIA
MARILYN HOLLOWAY
DRESS CIRCLE
BETTY COOPER

CWIS (Can-West Iris sale)
MDB
MAYA MINT

SDB
FOOTNOTE
Little Sighs
Little Streaker
PINCH ME
Props

IB
BIT OF CHOCOLATE
Fall Line
HACKMATACK
Line Drive
Midnight Ice
RARE EDITION
Red Hot Chilli
Toe The Line
WrightÂs Flights

BB
Special Blend
Winning Streak
MTB
DOTTED DOLL
LITTLE BAY DENOC

TB
THE BLACK DOUGLAS

OMG, Crazy gardener ... you must to learn to say NO, lol ... though, I know how it goes with this addiction called plants :)

Terry

hee, hee, heee Terry you're funny ;P

The only time I say NO is to extra shifts at work!

I ain't called Crazy Gardener for nothing ;)

Of your trials Sharon, in case you or Chuck is interested, I have grown ERAMOSA BLUSHING BRIDE (died over 2nd winter); WAR CHIEF (alive but non-vigorous and has never bloomed in 2 years); and GARDEN BRIDE (dead but moved after planting so may be my fault).

TBs are hit and miss here. The only ones I would say have done REALLY well were a NOID Chuck sent by mistake and an unknown white my mom gave me.

Shoot, I just got War Chief - if it's wimpy that will NOT please the OCD lawn boy aka retired army chief warrant officer.

Crazy Gardener...yeah...I think I'll be giving a lot of gift irises in a couple of years. I just think that one little rhizome looks so iddy-biddy all by itself! Especially when it is a SDB or MDB. You got Black Lightning as an EXTRA!!!! Bah! You lucky luckly lady! Isn't that one of his new intros? I think it looks fabulous..I would love it! I didn't really notice it until after my order was in though...

You must have absolutely enormous gardens to fit all those orders in!!!

Sharon, What exactly is your trial for Chuck?

Like Gil, War Chief and Garden Bride didn't survive for me. I had Garden bride fail twice. I am trying both these iris one more time as they were in my order this year again. The both have a very prime location.

I have tried the recommended planting an inch deeper, that Chuch suggests on his site for some of the ones I planted the last 3-5 years. I also tried 1/2 inch deep. I used sand on some in case my soil was to heavy and held moisture to long in spring and rotted the rhizomes. Figured sand would be more free draining. I should note here that my soil is heavy clay, but very well ammended with compost and peat and manure...over the last 13 years. So it is not as heavy as straight heavy clay soil.

I did this with TB rebloomers, TB, BB, SDB's and MDB's. My findings are that most survive but just don't bloom. I did lose a couple rebloomers...I am assuming from planting a bit deeper. I had one rebloomer out of 7 bloom last year. It was Crimson Snow. This year I raised the ones I had planted a little deeper to soil level in early spring...and most bloomed for me.

I planted MTB 'BumbleBee Delight' 1 inch deeper with sand and it bloomed the year after planting...with several stems.(last summer) This summer however it only had one flowering stem, but had lots of new fans.

Devenshire Cream and Sweet Musette seem to be my most reliable TB's. They have been blooming consistantly in my garden for the last 5 years. Immortality is doing its best to keep up as well...but it hasn't been in the garden as long...only 3 years.

I was a bit surprised to lose several over last winter, as I have not had that many iris loses before. They were new ones that had been planted last summer. I believe weather has a big role on if they will survive the first year.

One more side note. The TB rebloomers do NOT rebloom for me. However they do extend my iris season, as they bloom at the end of the TB season. About the time that the siberians start blooming.

Sierra

Pudge - just to clarify about War Chief, it's not a total bust but it has been a really slow starter. It had two miserable leaves last summer and I thought it was a goner, but it has two modest fans this summer. Maybe next year it will leap?

Whoo hoo, I just got my Chapmans order. It was all stuff I wanted. The long sub list is a good idea I guess. I got:
HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS
LIGHTSHINE
MESCAL
DREAMWALKER
HIGH BLUE SKY
SILVERADO
SPANISH ANGEL
UNCLE CHARLIE.

Now to finish off the new bed for them.