Most of the iris at my local WalMart looked like they were leftovers from last year. Very dry and showing no green whatsoever anywhere. No wonder they were untouched. I agree that Cherub's Smile is a pretty iris. I saw a lovely large clump of it at the demo garden at the Blue J iris farm in Nebraska, where it really was a standout.

I planted a few recently purchased rhizomes this week. I've been looking for Red Zinger, and there it was. Very dried out, not sure it will grow. The rhizome was still firm, and had some root buds. Sure it won't bloom next year, if it does survive. I wouldn't invest a lot in the dried out rhizomes, but it can be interesting to see if a dried out dead looking rhizome will grow.

I googled on Cherub's smile. Nice! 1982. Doesn't that make it a classic variety? I would have bought it too.

Warm pinks versus cool pinks? Love both.

I don't buy iris from big box stores because of the ID/mislabel stuff that seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

I wouldn't buy it from a big-box store. I bought Clarence from Home Depot and it was 'Clearance' instead- some no-name seedling that didn't rebloom and did not even look like Clarence!

A nice pink rebloomer is Alice Goodman. Like Cherub's Smile, it is a warm pink. I like Beverly Sills very much- the branching is better than Alice Goodman, but it does not rebloom in fall. Sometimes Beverly has an extended bloom in Spring, though.

Renee

I tried Cherub's Smile from Walmart a few years ago. Took 3 years to bloom & then it wasn't Cherub's Smile, but one I already had. Beautiful purple, the name eludes me for the moment, but NOT what I wanted. If you don't have many iris & don't care about ID, go for it. I HATE waiting 3 years to see bloom though & then find out it isn't right. That is not the only time that has happened, I used to try Walmart iris pretty often. Close to 50/50 chance.

50/50 is not acceptable! I won't buy any there!

The good mail order houses seem a lot more reliable. More expensive depending on what you buy, but the ones i've used sent big firm rhizomes at their peak. Much different from the local big box store or even the local big nursery.

There are some bad mail order houses too. Not to name names, but one sent me dried out dead looking rhizomes 3 months after I placed the order. discussed in the URL below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Let the buyer beware

Of all the things I've ever gotten at Walmart, bearded iris, daylilies, peonies, crocus - only the crocus was as labeled. The bearded iris was close-but-no-cigar, the daylily was NOTHING like (was supposed to be some frilly pink thing, was instead a very skinny petal [nearly a spider look!] rust brown!!), I don't remember what the peony was, and the crocus, bless it's little heart - was what I'd thought I'd bought! That's from multiple Walmarts, over several years... HD is better than Walmart, in my experience. Not a whole lot, but better.

Best stuff I've ever gotten has been at Society sales. Decent prices and accurately labeled is worth a bit of driving to me. Do a little online research, find a local group, and find out when they have their sales. A lot of the time, once you're on their mailing list, you'll get a small coupon announcing the sale. My local cactus and succulent sale gives me a whole dollar off... Woo hoo. BUT, I get really nifty stuff there, that's in good shape, that far surpasses anything the big box stores sell, or even all but the really high end specialty nurseries sell locally. And, a lot of the time they don't take cards, so you have to have cash and you can't run over budget...

Hi folks: Jumping in to some of the forums to help get me in the garden mood for spring. I too love NOID iris, matter of fact, all perennials to my zone. I have purchased many named varieties. Have traded with other gardeners also and have found even iris pruchased from so-called reputable sellers also bloom incorrectly.Goes to show we are all human and mistakes can happen. Here are two pictures of what my Cherub Smile bloomed this past year.

That's very pretty. It looks like Cherub's Smile to me. Your garden is unbelievably huge and gorgeous- I would love to see more of it! Can you post a few overall shots?

The irises mislabeled at big box stores are not mistakes. They sell irises that are unnamed and rejected seedlings culled by big growers, under names they know to be wrong. Small family owned businesses make mistakes sometimes, and occasionally you will run into a disreputable one, but for the most part, you get much better quality from them. Of course, none of that matters if you just want to grow pretty flowers and don't care about names. The reason I was upset that I didn't get what I bought at Home Depot is that the iris on the label was a rebloomer, and the iris I got was entirely different and did not rebloom, so I felt ripped off after waiting two years to see it. If you like what blooms, who cares what the name is?
Renee

Thank you Renee for you nice compliments. I agree about the disappointment to wait for the bloom only to find it is not correct. I too had probelms with iris from H.D. Suppose to be orange, "Maid Of Orange" and bought several to use in different areas of my gardens, several bloomed purple. Who knows. I was lucky that they were potted and bloomed the same year so I returned them. I mentioned about mistakes being made from reputable sellers and I won't name them because I am sure whomever they ordered from wholesale made the mistake. Usually they will make the adjustment, but it keeps one on their toes. Here is another picture, I do not know how to add several attachments here at once so I will post again. I am sure we all have beautiful gardens to share with each other. So looking forward to spring this year since I put in a couple hundreds new ones. Will see if they bloom correctly. I love all of my flowers, even the NOIDs. I have become addicted to iris in the last couple of years. My main love is peonies. Raging Tide iris attached.Will add a few more in next post.

Looks like attachment did not come thru. I'll try again.

Some miscelleaneous perennials on the top of our riverbank.

My gardens will be changing again in 2013. Love adding diffefrent perennials and color combinations. Looking forward to many new additions this year.

Lovely lovely pictures. The peonies and poppies have me lusting.

Oh my gosh, you have a river too? I'm with irisgal- the Oriental poppies and the peonies send me into a swoon. We can't grow them here in SoCal. Your garden looks like heaven on earth. Thank you for posting more overall garden shots, which I am dying for! I love the peachy irises.

The riverbank is a 20 foot drop and we have in the past had many accidents so i decided to plant along the edge so we do not have to mow. When I receive or identify many NOIDs when they bloom, I usually try to fill the top of the bank till I can identify them. The bank has 60 peonies plants across the garden, many will go into first bloom this year. Hope to get some new pictures this year. So I do not mind buying iris for discount prices knowing they may be incorrect according to what the package states. Yet, when I pay good money for a so-called named iris, I really would love it to bloom correctly. Love them all.I have included an evening picture on the riverbank.

Lovely pictures!

We love peonies here on the iris forum too. Don't forget to show them off to us!

Definately will. Looking forward to seeing everyone else's pictures and reading about their thoughts and suggestions. Such fun getting new ideas and seeing what other gardeners are doing.

It is! Have you seen the photos of people's gardens over on the Cottage Garden Forum? This spring there should be a lot of lovely photos.

No,I have not. I just joined last summer and have not learned all the forums yet, so many to view. I will get over there and view those pictures. Looking forward to seeing everyones new pictures. Love new ideas and plants.We talk about incorrect iris, this was suppose to be pink. I forgot the name it was sold under. Lovely thou.

That color was created to make green pop! This is my dad's favorite flower color. I finally bought a bright yellow iris this year, called Shooting Stars. It might be more gold than this kind of saturated yellow. I can't wait to see it bloom.

Yes, the cottage garden forum and the perennial forum often have good overall garden shots, especially in spring and summer. The daylily forum is where the really really nice people are, and they are fanatics over there. Lots of photos of single daylilies. The rose forum gallery gets mostly shots of single roses, but the gallery on the Antique rose forum gets more whole garden and whole shrub shots.