I'm inclined to agree Walter. The first photo shows GP looking very black, but in the second one it looks much the same as the other 2. I have Mastery, which has not performed well for me (yet?). Decadence is significantly different. I never bought Indulgence. I may see how mastery goes this year, before i commit myself.
I intend to do my order today, and I am particularly tempted by:
Fluent Mandarin, Juicy Rumours, Puff the Magic, Reckless in Denim, Silk and Honey, Platinum Class.
Barry has a lot of imports that also interest me this year, so it will be a difficult choice.
Cheers, Jan

I grow Mastery and Indulgence- and have Glamour Pants new this year. I have seen all three and actually I do think they are each distintive enough that I would always be able to tell them apart.

Here's photos of the three:

Mastery

{{gwi:1039383}}

Not the best shot of Mastery that I've seen, the photo was taken on its first bloom here in July, and form certainly improves when they get the entire year to prepare.

Indulgence

{{gwi:1039384}}

Indulgence has a wire rim of the fall color on the outer edge of it's rim. It is probably the strongest grower of the three.

Glamour Pants

{{gwi:1039386}}

Glamour Pants is my favorite of the three. I hadn't planned on getting it until I saw it- and then I REALLY wanted it. For me, it has the best form and branching of the three, and I prefer the warmer colors as well.

Robin Shadlow
zone 5 NE

breaking records with 90's in October : )

Thanks, Robin. This helps.....a little. I still think I would have trouble if they were in a test garden situation with the stakes removed.

The band color may help and the slight differences in std. color.

Hot here, too, with ghastly summer-like humidity. I am still unpotting and transplanting.

I have a bud coming on Stephanie Markham's Understated, which is a surprise. Rosalie Figge and Over and Over also are in bud.

Walter Moores

Walter and Jan, Where do you buy your Blyth's irises from? Those are very nice!

Here are some sources of Blyth Irises
(these are stateside)
Aitkens Salmons Creek Gardens
http://www.flowerfantasy.net
Mid America Gardens
http://www.mid-america.com
Bayview gardens
ghiobayview@surfnetusa.com
Keith Keppel
P.O Box 18154
Salem, OR 97305 cat. 2.00

since most are not shipping right now, maybe they can give you a catalog for reference
Cheers
Timmba

I was just wondering. What standards (no pun intended) are breeders introducing by nowadays. It seems like there are a ton of new varieties on the market that have not seemingly progressed beyond similar intros 20 or more years preceding them. I see many breeders using parents up to 30 years old in a simple F1 cross. I'm seeing more purples and lavenders that people want 30+ dollars for when any gardener could get an equivalent in Walmart or Home Depot for a few bucks. I realize flower isn't everything, but that fact is what people make most of their buying decisions from. I realize the most of us may not achieve the stature of Blyth, Keppel, Ghio, Hager and others, but I'm baffled by the load of lackluster new intros out there. I heard quite a few comments in Portland during this years convention is that the guest irises by and large ......"s*cked" (an actual quote by somebody) This is according to a well known irisarian who hosted quite a few guests.
Please don't get me wrong, i'm not takings potshots at peoples achievements but I find that I have to see an intro nowadays before I buy it. Can anybody enlighten me or am I "all rhizome and no flower"

Mastery is one of Blyth's better growers here. Sometimes on the short side. I do not grow the other two.
About Town, Dream Till Dawn, Girl Thing, Call Me Blue and Romancer are good growers here. All of them bloom tall.

timmba I doubt many are using 20 or 30 year old TB's as breeders. It may take 10 years before one of the big growers have enough stock to introduce one.

This years national had record amounts of rain, which does not make good performance.

Buy your pink or black iris from Wal-Mart or Home Depot but don't be unhappy when all are common violet. Most commercial gardens beat their prices on older iris. Plus extras and better rhizomes. Most are true to name. Cheap is not always a bargain.

Mike G

On the one hand, Timmba's sentiments were mine on viewing some of the guest iris at the convention gardens. There were a number that I would have liked to asked the hybridizer what he saw that made that iris worthy of introduction. On the other hand, as has been discussed here, sometimes an outstanding iris like Sea Power fails to perform well in some parts of the country. Someone may breed an iris that looks similar but prospers in those areas. That would make it worthy of introduction. Other things may involve height, season (earlier or later), difference in beard color, better form or branching or bud count.

I agree. Add rebloom to those lookalikes. On the back cover of the fall 2006 issue of Tall Talk, there is an ad "See What's New for 2007 . . .

Does it get you excited?

Or, is it deja vu all over again?

For the last several years, the catalog irises that got me the most excited weren't the cover girls or centerfolds, it was the bonus irises. At least that was so with two major color catalogs. Those irises are supposed to be flawed, but sometimes it is hard to find the flaw. Sunshine and Snow is an example.

Walter Moores

I bought what is supposed to be Mastery at the local iris sales last year. It's hasn't grown or gotten any new leaves since the Spring.

Neil

I'm glad someone else asked this question, because I wondered the same myself. I can see the differences in Robin's photos, but I wouldn't feel compelled to add more than one of them to my collection. And I already have MASTERY.

Walter, you and I must think alike, because again, I thought the same thing when I saw the back cover of Tall Talk. Lovely irises, yes, but nothing that made me say, "Oh wow! Look at that!" Of all the irises pictured in this edition of TT, 3 caught my eye: Jack Worel's RUSH CREEK (was on my wish list already, and NEANDERTHAL is different, too), Baumunk's luminata seedling 2124N on page 48, and the Willotts' JOYFULNESS, which I have seen in person at their garden, and can say that in NE Ohio, she grows well and puts up tall, strong show stalks like her sister seedling, VATICAN FLAG.

But it's easier to be picky with the memory of re-planting my entire collection still fresh in my mind. (Just finished the last of them on Monday!) ;-)

Diana

Very interesting post, thank you Robin.
I see very little difference in the three Blyth's( all three have the same stands and the ring on the fall edges-that most Blyth's have)
And with the other comments, and I didn't see ths guest gardens, so maybe I disqualify? But the new intro's?
What IS new?
I am glad 'it is not all about new intro's'! I agree with both Walter and George!
Rae Ann
PS: as bonus I have been sent NEW intro's that I have 'donated' to friends as they do not appeal to me.

Snowpeak has alot of Barry Blyths iris

D