I can only speak from my own experience growing a number of the irises on your list in my very northern climate, but I often have to stake TBs to keep them upright during bloom season. Irises are also susceptible to bacterial soft rot, fungal leaf spot, and iris borers, along with other less common maladies, so they are not exactly carefree. Even so, I grow nearly 800 iris cultivars and love them as my favorite flower. I just don't want you to bring them into your garden under the false assumption that they are necessarily bomb-proof.

That said, I can tell you that Blenheim Royal and Stepping Out are extremely hardy here and are among my favorite TBs. I have grown Titan's Glory, and it is gorgeous, but it wasn't quite tough enough to hack it in my climate and garden. Same with Vanity, which I am now growing for the third time because an online friend gifted me with a rhizome. None of these four are (or were) vigorous growers for me, but few TBs are vigorous in my garden.

You might want to consider adding a few rebloomers to your list. There are a number of TBs that have the potential to rebloom in your zone and may provide you with two (or possibly even more) flushes of iris bloom. Immortality is a white that reblooms in many parts of the country. Harvest of Memories is a yellow that does the same. Sugar Blues is neither as blue nor as attractive as Blenheim Royal, but it is a rebloomer with an absolutely incredible, strong, sweet fragrance. Pink Attraction is a pink that reblooms in many locations. Earl of Essex is a violet on white plicata with strong rebloom tendencies. Holy Night is a beautiful dark purple rebloomer. I'm having a hard time thinking of a red rebloomer at the moment.

Just a little food for thought.

Laurie

Humm, I did think they were carefree. I also thought rebloom was just a marketing ploy. Good to get an experienced opinion on that. I'll check out the rebloomers before I order.

Still, for 800 culivars to grow in Z3b iris as a group must be fairly hardy. Far fewer roses can grow that far north.

Many, many irises have the genetic potential to rebloom, but most can only do so in the climates with the longest growing seasons. There are, however, a number of "cold climate rebloomers" (such as those I recommended above) that have been reported to rebloom in the colder zones -- in a precious few cases even in my garden.

Rebloom is never guaranteed on any iris in any garden, though. There are just too many cultural and climatic factors that influence rebloom (aside from a particular cultivar's rebloom genetics) to make it a sure thing. The best you can do if you want to try for rebloom is to buy irises known to rebloom in your area, then grow them as well as you can to maximize their bloom potential.

Irises are an extremely diverse group of plants, from the various classes of bearded irises to the different beardless types to the crested irises to the bulbous irises. There are irises for virtually every climate and cultural condition. The ones with which I have had the most problems to date are the tall beardeds. For every one TB that has managed to acclimate to my growing conditions, I have probably lost five more over the years. I currently grow 234 named TBs. The rest of my irises are median and dwarf beardeds and various beardless types.

I particularly enjoy the dwarf and median beardeds because they are, as a general rule, much more hardy and disease-resistant than the TBs, and they very rarely require staking. They are also more vigorous clumpers and reliable bloomers for me than are the TBs. The exceptions are the border beardeds, which tend to behave like TBs here.

Laurie

I eventually figured out that the roses I like and that grow well for me are generally the "antique" roses, more typically known as once bloomers. Not the most prestigious, but plenty beautiful. Plus, they are done blooming by the time the blasted Japanese beetles arrive.

There is another factor in my iris choices. The iris I mentioned first are on sale. Hard to pass up relatively carefree beauty on sale! I'm going to check out the rebloomers, the dwarf and the median bloomers that are on sale, too.

Jackie

From what I've heard, and personally grow, all of the irises you have selected so far should do well in your zone. You have a couple of historic irises, as well as a few mid-80s to mid-90s iris.

I can tell you right now that STEPPING OUT will never require staking, at least in my yard. The historic irises are more resistant to disease then some of the newer iris.

A concern that I might have with you having roses is to make sure you use a low-nitrogen fertilizer, such as bone meal. Rose food will rot your irises and if you put your irises over your existing rose bed, you might experience some problems if you fertizized recently.

I'd be wary of Rebloomers, as they don't always rebloom. It depends on cultural conditions. I really don't look for rebloomers when I search for iris. If there's one I like that is, great. If not, oh well.

Sincerely,
Carlos

I would say that is a wonderful selection. If you get them on sale, so much the better. I would venture that if you emailed Schreiner's they would confirm that that collection is being grown by happy people almost all over the USA. The problem with rebloomers for many of us is that they still prove to be once bloomers. It is not infrequent for some of them to take the spring off and then send up a stalk in July when the high temperatures make short work of the blooms. Sometimes they send up a bloom stalk in late October when it has little chance of making it. I would get in touch with your local iris society and ask them which rebloomers perform best in your area.

grandmother's rose:
The iris you selected are all well known and proven favorites.
That being said, if you come here often enough you will see that even those 'good growers' may not all grow for you. I am always amazed at the constant variations on vigor different people report for the same cultivar. If you get bitten by the 'iris bug', and it turns out that one you selected doesn't want to grow in your garden, it is the perfect excuse to replace it with two new ones.
Good luck and come again. Let us know how you made out with them.
Laetitia

Cool. I tried to pick the iris that had the HM and AM awards (I still don't know what they are. Some enlighenment here would be welcome.) I figured if it had been in the market for 10 years or more it would likely be a good iris.

I use Rosetone by Espoma on my roses. Its ratio is 6-6-4. I also use gardentone on nearby plants and its ratio is 5-5-3. I thought either would be ok for the Iris.

I've had the same experience with roses that you describe with the iris--what grows well for one may not grow well for me. Thanks for the advice.

Buying two to replace one bummer! Great gardeners think alike!

I really try to stay organic in my garden, that's another reason I have given up on most roses because of the beetles.

Coming from another zone 6, I have lots of iris & love them. If you are concerned with flopping, you might try some of the shorter iris. I don't have too much problem unless we have a really heavy storm, but of course, spring is the time for tornadoes. Earl of Essex & Jean Guymer both dependably rebloom for me, although often Earl is still blooming when we have our first hard frost. I have a few other rebloomers that do well if they get enough rain. I don't tend to water during dry years, so some are more iffy. For me though, iris are indistructable "so far". Love roses, but not the J beetles! Although Jbs don't seem to bother the smaller flowering roses as much.

HM = Honorable Mention Award
AM = Award of Merit

I'm not very well versed on the award system, but Honorable mention is the first award given any irises two years after the date of introduction. I could be wrong but I believe 75 irises a year are given this award.

The next available award after Honorable Mention is the Award of Merit. An iris must have been awarded an Honorable Mention in order to be eligible to receive the Award of Merit and it must be achieved two years after receiving the HM Award. Only think only 20 irises a year are given this award.

Once and Iris has received the Award of Merit, then there is the class award. For TBs it's the Wister Medal. Only 3 class awards are given each year.

After that, it's the Dykes Medal (DM) which is the highest award an Iris can get and one iris gets it a year.

Anyone please feel free to correct anything that I've mentioned.

Sincerely,
Carlos

Japanese Beetles! jeez, I used to loathe those things. They have no shame!
What DO you do to get rid of them? I have 2 rosebushes and they just love to munch the heart out of the blooms. They also like other things like wisteria.
I just end up shaking the bush and stomping on whatever falls out.
Thankfully they do not like iris.
Laetitia

Now I can search for the Dyke's Medal and Wister Medal and see if any of those are $3.25 and place another order. Heh Heh Heh. And my Hubby thought I was bad with the roses!

Maybe I should have kept Titan's Glory. I nixed it for Darkside because I liked the color better (at least as it showed on my computer.) I'll put it on the possible purchases list along with Earl of Essex and Jean Guymer

Well, you know, this year I just pulled off the rose buds after the beetles arrived. That helped a little. Mostly I had the mental satisfaction of depriving them of their favorite food. They still stank (and stink.) They still ate the leaves on my once bloomers. They still ate my basil and marigolds. I chose iris specifically because the blasted beetles supposedly don't eat them. I'll let you know if they are beetle fodder when planted in my rose-challanged garden.

Do you all say "she" for iris like everyone in the roses forum does for the roses?

Do we say 'she' when referrning to an iris? Well, not universally, unless it has a feminine name. Then its a 'she'. But of course if its named something like WILLIAM SETCHELL its obviously a 'he'.
Laetitia

Milky Spore, it's a disease specific to japanese beetle grubs. You can buy it in most feed stores, garden centers. Little pricey but it will winter over and actually spread. The control is slow but steady. Each year the numbers decline.

I have roaming guinea hens so the beetles don't fare so well. Not a good suburban solution though. The milky spore doesn't scream at joggers.

I love old roses. Pretty much all I will get is the oldies that have been hanging around some neighbors yard for ages. In front of my house are 3 roses that have been here at least pushing 100 years. I've got a picture of house and the roses and peonies are visible in the front bed. I'll get it on line one of these days and post it. Pretty neat pic.

Stepping out is the only one I have on your list. Does great here and even did well with my major monsoons this year. My long cold and wet springs do a number on iris. Mostly it is the historics that shine through each year.

Look up Dusky Challenger. One I think I'll never be without. Does well just about everywhere.

If I don't know a plants name it's a she. If I do know it then it's whatever the name infers or conjures. Exception, I have an old rose that has been with me all my life. I don't know it's name but I do think of it as a he. No real reasoning other than the odds are high that my father or uncle probably moved it from my grandmothers garden for her because it was a good grower and moved it to it's spot out near the woods at our childhood home. When the wood was doomed I took the rose with me. I just can't ever remember it not being there at the entrance to the dirt road through the woods.

I like Dusky Challenger! She won the Dyke's Medal, too.

Well, I did order 7 sale iris from Schreiner's (Blenheim Royal, Classic Look, Stepping Out, San Juan Silver, War Chief, Vanity, and Darkside.) I e-mailed them the next day and asked for my free one (Blueberry Hill?), too. I hope they send it even though I forgot to request it at the time I orderd.

Guess what happened the next day? My MOM told me she had some iris that I could dig up. Evidently, I never visited at the right time to see them bloom. Now I have 20 good looking rhizomes of unknown colors and 6 that I broke all the leaves off of. I washed them and cut off the brown roots, and they are drying in the shade. I left the white roots on. Do I REALLY have to plant them 1 foot apart?!

* Will Espoma Rosetone (6-6-4) or Gardentone (5-5-3) be ok? I'll pick up some bone meal soon and I can get, what, Bulbtone?

At least quality iris are less expensive per plant than quality roses! Hubby is lucky I changed interests, right?

1' spacing is really too close for TBs. You'd be better off planting them at least 18". 2' is better. If you plant them too closely, they'll quickly crowd each other and diminish air circulation between the clumps, which will leave them particularly susceptible to leaf spot. You'll also have clumps growing into each other within a year or two, and you'll have to be constantly dividing them.

Don't fertilize your irises with anything containing nitrogen at this time of year. You don't want to be promoting tender new growth this late in the season. Giving them a light feeding of bone meal or superphosphate won't hurt, though. In the spring, the Gardentone should be ok if you mix it with some more bone meal or superphosphate and feed the irises about 6 weeks before bloom.

Laurie

Oh, the luxury of planting iris 1 foot apart! Since my space is limited, but my iris greediness is not, I crowd them closer than 1' between. But if you do that, you will have to divide more often, and your iris may grow into each other.
Laetitia

Experience is worth following. I did eventually learn to follow the spacing advice for roses. I'll plant them 18" apart.

I'm glad I can use the rose/gardentone and add bone meal. Sounds easy enough. Good thing you told me not to fertilize w/nitrogen 'cause I sure would have.

I put out milky spore earlier this year. My understanding is that it needs to applied over an acre or two to have much of an effect on the beetles attracted to the roses. The JB's fly far to get the roses. The little grubbers won't be eating my grass roots, though!

If you have dogs or carnivorous wildlife that come into your garden area, you might want to use superphosphate instead of bone meal. Carnivores will sometimes dig and uproot irises and other plants when attracted by the scent of bone meal.

Laurie

Laurie, You are so right. Bone meal just does not work in my part of the country.

I heard that on the Antique Roses Forum, too. 6 cats, no loose dogs in the neighborhood.

Max munched the 2 moles/voles that ate half a rose bush's worth of roots.

Schreiner's said they would send Blueberry Bliss as the bonus iris eventhough I asked the day after I ordered. I didn't even think of a bonus iris until I read another thread here talking about the great bonus iris so and so sent.

As long as everything grows I'll be pleased. Now, to dig that bed . . . a little clay conditioner, a little manure, a little bone meal, a little cooler weather to inspire the digger . . .

You might want to reconsider that manure. Manures tend to add too much nitrogen and promote soft growth that is vulnerable to bacterial soft rot in bearded irises.

Laurie

Good thing you told me. Roses love manure. I had a bit of cow manure left over and thought it would be good for iris, too. I'll just throw it in a different flower bed. So, very little N, mostly P and a bit of K. That's the way we sing i-ris, do dah, do dah (think of the tune for Camptown races.)

With all this good advice my iris adventure may actually be successful!

Jackie

Any fertlizers or amendments should be applied after a soil test to determine what, if anything, your soil actually needs. For instance, my native soil is extremely potassium deficient, so I add a LOT of potash when I rework a bed and also when I'm just topdressing fertilizer. My soil is also almost devoid of organic material (it's nearly solid clay), so I add as many organics as I can get my hands on.

Just remember that overfertilization can be as detrimental to your soil and plants as can underfertilization. It always help to know what you're starting with in terms of soil fertility before you begin adding amendments and fertilizers.

The most important aspect of bed prep for irises is excellent drainage. A raised bed is ideal, but I plant most of my irises on raised windrows to help direct foot, paw, and hoof traffic to the walkways between the raised rows.

Give your new irises full sun, excellent drainage, and minimal water, and they'll do fine. Overwatering is probably the most common cause of failure with bearded irises. It's rather easy to rot them with too much water, particularly in beds with heavy soil and/or less than ideal drainage.

Laurie

Irises cheaper than roses?
I paid $60 for one of Barry Blyths new releases last year, and $50 for several others. (That's Aus dollars.) I bought the new release rose Red Pierre for $14 and I KNOW it will survive and will grow well for me, and show off it's bloom every year consistantly.
The more common and popular roses can be bought for $6 to $8 bare rooted and I would pay that much for older varieties of iris. With close to 250 roses in my garden, I don't think they are going to make me poor, but at least the irises increase and can be shared, traded or sold.
I haven't heard of japanese beetles, so perhaps we don't have it here. Nor do we have iris borer, thank heavens.
With heavy clay loam soil my roses out perform the bearded irises by far, but I am finding that Spurias just love these conditions and siberians aren't far behind. In the dryer areas the pacific coast irises are thriving, and in the wet patches I grow versicolour, virginica, setosa, and 40 chromosome siberians. In the fernery and other shady spots my evansias are thriving. My I. unguicularis have amazed me with a wonderful, long lasting performance throughout the dreary winter months this year, and my species bearded irises are about to start up.
Grandmothers rose - don't just settle for tall bearded irises. There are many other irises which may give you a far better show than the beardeds, and for a longer period of time.

heh heh heh. Guess I don't have the iris bug bad enough (yet) to buy those beauties! At this point, $3.75-$7.50 for something that's pretty and the JBs leave alone is a much better value than a $20 bush to attract 'em. If the JBs ever mutate enough to invade Australia, your happy rosey days are over!

If the iris I have actually do well in my amended clay, I'll branch out to some a' those varieties you mentioned.

Yeah, I'm from the South, in case ya didn't notice. Ya outta hear me in person. Can ya write with an Aussie accent?

Can hear the accent loud and clear. we once had a piano teachers workshop with Jane Bastien. Don't know if you have heard of her. She started off by saying "I'm from the South" and I'm thinking - um - yes - that's fairly obvious! LOL
Hope youor irises do OK on the amended clay. I have been working with clay for the last 5 years, and the irises don't like the wet conditions on flat ground - a slope would allow SOME drainage at least. Compounding that is the problem that the septic tank drains underneath my iris beds. The soil is delicious and nutritious, which is obvious by the fact that new seedlings have increased to as many as 32 increases in 10 months since planting out as tiny babies. BUT - then they rot in spring when the ground is sodden and the rain falls and the weather warms up.
Mine are moving to a better climate soom. we have purchased a property which has incredibly well drained red volcanic soil (potato growing country) and bore water of a slightly alkaline nature. All my TB's are going there. In the mud flats i will plant the spurias that love it so much and lots of Siberians and maybe some LA's.

Humm, I didn't realize you had volcanos in Australia. Steve Irwin didn't mention them in "The Crocodile Hunter." He's the expert, ya know. (I bought his DVD just so I could learn to speak like an Aussie! G'day Mate! Look a' that Sheila run! Whoooee!)

I'll bet you have lots of mates that will take those little increases off your hands.

My clay is actually on a slight hill, and I have NEVER overwatered ANYTHING. I use my hose so little, the spiders make homes in it! God overwatered my flower garden (on my neighbor's property) at the base of the hill by about 7" in June. Yeah, that caused a few casualties.

I planted some freebie iris from my Mom yesterday. If they throw out some new leaves I'll consider myself a happy gardener. It'll give me hope for the coming "bonanza" (only 7) from Schreiner's.

For the tall beardeds (which bloom before Japanese beetles arrive here) I go around with those wire stakes with a ring a the top before the buds open. Otherwise the first rain brings disaster. Border bearded don't need staking, are earlier and have shorter stems and usually smaller flowers.
signed - another rose grower who has to get out and plant the 11 iris still left in the Schreiner's box.

Thanks, oldroser. I remember seeing your posts on the Roses Forums.
I did wonder about the staking. Seems to me any plant with that many large flowers on one stem would have "issues." Others have said staking is not necessary. I'll find out here in a few months.

I live in Roanoke, VA & planted rebloomers "Hemstitched" and "Feed Back" last year. They bloomed wonderfully last fall and this spring, and are vigorously multiplying.
I threw some Scott's lawn grub control pellets (contains .20% Merit) on my iris this spring when we had two 70 degree (high temps of the day) in a row as I've read to do, and hopefully that will nix the borers.
Some of the rebloomers' rhizomes rotted over winter, but the rest grew so vigorously that it didn't slow the patch down to any noticable extent.