Thanks for the comments, y'all!

Evelyn - No, I am homeschooled. It gives me a lot of free time. Though, I am in a weird sort of place - no homeschool to do, and not yet in college, so there is a lot of freetime to be had for the moment!

Robin - Smoldering Fire, Tobacco Chew and Honey Glazed will look great with each other! Tobacco Chew and Thornbird are next to each other with BB Cranapple in front. That's going to be a nice combo too!
Hopefully, all of them will at some point bloom together, but there's quite a few varieties in there, and none of them I have had experience with. I suppose we will have to wait and see!

Awesome work Monty! I can't wait to see your pictures next spring. If you haven't seen Oil Painting bloom yet in person, prepare yourself to be blown away, it's gorgeous!

Monty again I am worried that your rhizomes are covered. Here we like to see the tops of the rhizomes. Remember they are a stem.

I am not too worried. I tried to keep all of the rhizomes just under the dirt and mulch so that they're not too deep. I found out that too exposed, or any exposed bits at all get really hot and dry. I wanted to try and avoid that. Hopefully, they'll do just fine, but if they do not, I'll raise them. Thanks for the comment, Lucy!

Liz - Thanks! I'm very, very, very excited for the 2019 bloom season. I have upwards of 58 new varieties to possibly look forward to their maiden blooms! Oil Painting is pretty in pictures, but most of the time, pictures never capture the true beauty. I am stoked!

I have an update tomorrow, with pictures, but I finished too late to capture pictures as it had turned nighttime by the time I had finished with my shower.
Thanks everyone for the continued comments and advice!

You have a great collection of irises Monty. I worry those popsicle sticks will rot away over Winter. For some quick, free and long lasting plant tags, you can cut up some one gallon nursery pots. So you can read the ink, try to find the red, orange, green, or pinks pots. The plastic is UV rated so it wont deteriorate under the sun for several years (if ever). I've used them before and when I would step on them, they would bounce right back. They were still readable 3-4 years later.

For the writing on the tags, you want to use paint pens. Don't use a permanent marker, because it will wash away, or get bleached out by the sun. I'm not sure if you can use a pencil on the plastic, I never tried.

Here's an example of a tag made from a cut up one gallon green pot.


An orange/red one.

I agree about using paint pen. That has worked really well for me. I use them on metal labels. My seedlings had been written on wooden markers this year and I regret doing that since the bottom that was sticking in the soil rotted away.

What an interesting idea Rob! I think I will certainly have to try this out, though, all of my pots that I'd use this for are black. They're your typical plastic pots you get with any plant you purchase from Lowe's or Walmart, or any nursery really. Thanks for the idea, Rob!

I've noticed already that the wooden markers look constantly wet, which might lead to rotting. It doesn't help that it has been raining a ridiculous amount these past few days.

Monty ~ If they are wet now, they will not last until spring...rotting away quickly. If you can, use plastic or metal.

I'll have to try plastic or metal, for sure. Especially now that hurricane Michael is dumping buckets and buckets of rain on us. It has been raining pretty hard to very, very hard all day long, and there's water puddles forming into water ponds now, so that's lovely.

Monty ~ Sorry about all the water. Too much for many, not enough in other areas. Why does this happen????

I don't know, but believe it or not, even with all this abundant rain, I think most of my irises are loving it!

Well, I have quite a bit of an update for my thread! Let's see....

A few days back, I finally got all of the blue section and ID irises out of the scraggly L-shaped bed into the other side of the front-porch beds.

The little spur in the front left is Busy Being Blue. Three rhizomes, but they've not yet sent up much foliage even though when I moved them, one of the rhizomes had three increases forming. It is in front of Stairway to Heaven, and next to BB Blackbeard, which is in turn, in front of Absolute Treasure!


The scope spreads from early to very late.

The blue section is quickly ending with Splashacata in front, and Conjuration behind. To the right begins the ID purpose irises. Jean Cayeux (right back), Gay Paree (front right) and Quaker Lady (farthest right)




Last of this bunch is Gay Pal (front) and Easter Bonnet (back).



I am looking forward to this little bed, particularly the blues! I feel like I will get a lot of decadent colour spread over a couple weeks. They all had at least one increase forming!

Yesterday, a large box came in and it housed several, several new varieties and future combinations to go in both of the front porch beds! This box was of the giving of Rob! Thanks Rob!!!

First up in a group of five, a sort of yellow/blue mix, Kwik Kash (left) and Breakers (right).



And the other three in this group!
.


Another group of three! Modern Drama (left), Source of Course (middle) and Men Are From Mars (right).



An interesting five combo. Mostly pinks! Struck Twice (left) and Heidi Alaina (right)



That combo continued! Peggy Sue (left), BB I'm Dreaming (middle) and Sordid Lives (right).


Of course, Sordid Lives is the middle iris in the entire group. Struck Twice would be right next to it on the right.

All the new plantings on the left side of the porch beds!


Now onto the right side of the porch beds! I have two more oranges to add to the long orange/yellow/red section. Orange Joker (left, front) and Murano Amber (right, front).




Durham Dream (left), IB Leave The Light On (middle), and Oso Good (right) make up an interesting little combo of three.




Last but not least, a combo of four, which is almost like the blue section in the right side of the porch bed instead of the left! Alpenview and Managua (top left and right) and Mimosa and Silverado (bottom left and right [Silverado is hard to see]).



I may have missed this, but Obsessed, and absolutely STUNNING iris is in one of these groups, but I may have overlooked it because it is late.

It is in a group with Lady in Purple and Fashion Magic. I must have accidentally not taken the picture for these!


Last thing in this update, but not involving pictures...Kind Candace has a bloomstalk growing!!!!!


I believe I have lost my little Midnight MDB. It is a sad loss, but there's so much greatness in this thread already! I'll have another one some day.

Alright, that is all I have for now. Thanks for the continued comments everyone!

Monty ~ Remind me next year to replace your Midnight. Mine is growing like "Gangbusters "! When I got Midnight it was a tiny dried up rhizome with no leaves.

For someone just starting out this year, you already have quite a nice iris collection!

It is thanks to a whole lot of you that this collection is even half as good as I dreamt it'd be.
I was so surprised that I joined this site, and by the next week, I already had been given an iris box. It is such an awesome and inviting community here! I feel bad for not having very much in return, but once I have myself a good collection, I will definitely be trading with you all! I am certainly staying now, haha.

I'd love to have the little MDB Midnight again if you'd be able to spare next year, Evelyn. Hurricane Florence did mine in for sure.

Time for a little update!

The other day, Cat's Eye came up in another thread, and I decided to take a couple pictures of the cultivar.


Cat's Eye has seven increases!

Several of the noids my friend gave me have exploded in increases. I'll have to take more pictures, but out of around 20 rhizomes total, only about two or three have no visible increases yet.


Kind Candace, my first iris to show a reblooming stalk is on her way!


A week or more, and I may start seeing colour! Here is to hoping that the weather holds out long enough so that KC doesn't freeze before the bloom.

Recently, another box came in, and it held two IBs and another TB.

IB Courtney Rucker was sent with three rhizomes of the variety, and two went here. All three rhizomes of CR had increases beginning. In the image above, two noid daffodil bulbs went inbetween the two CR rhizomes.


In these two images, farthest right is TB Cow Palace, with IB Backlit Beauty in the middle, and the third and final Courtney Rucker IB near to the left.



Lastly, the petunias in the hanging baskets are still going strong!


I'll keep updating this thread every so often. I am excited for spring! Anybody else?

I hope you have good luck planting the rhizomes under ground. Remember the rhizome is not a root it is a stem. The roots grow from the bottom of the rhizome. I will be interested in seeing how they do.

Thanks for the comment, Bonnie!

Maybe I am a little paranoid, but the first transplants I did in August, the rhizomes WERE above the ground, but they got super, super hot. So, I placed some more dirt on them, but just enough where some of the rhizome is visible, and enough under to not burn away in the heat. I may have gotten a little bit wary with all the recent acquisitions recently, but most are right under the dirt. I may end up undoing some of that in the next few years, but hopefully, the irises do well! Thanks for the concern, Bonnie.

If you do need to uncover some of the mulch next year use a wisk broom or sturdy paint brush. If you scrape the soil off with a garden tool you could injure the rhizome and that could allow pathogens to enter. Good luck.

I've unburied some of mine by digging a mini trench around them, and then spraying the top off with a hose. Near pottery grade red clay laughs at whisk brooms.

Very true Diana. I think Monty has mulch/soil over his rhizomes and not the notorious clay we live with.

Great idea, Bonnie and Diana! I will have to save this idea if my irises do end up being too much under the dirt or mulch.

In most of the areas I planted in, red clay was everywhere. I'd say, dig anywhere in my yard, you get 10% soil, and 90% red clay. With the irises/plants that were planted directly into where red clay is, I removed enough red clay so that I could replace the hole with garden soil from any sort of garden store, and dug a smaller hole to put the iris rhizomes in and covered them with the remainder soil around from the bits I had just placed on top, but enough to not drown the iris in soil! (Hopefully)

I figure most of the irises might fair slightly better because of the way their planting zones are made. The rhizome is in good dirt, but the roots may extend down into the red clay below and maybe get more minerals or 'dessert' for them to grow.
I don't think I would have ever though I'd hear myself say "red clay gives dessert to iris rhizomes."