**I bought lots of Pacific iris with us and I have regular bearded iris (which are being slugged to death). So where is a good reliable source for some of the others you've mentioned? susan > >>If I can get healthy bulbs of Iris reticulata, Iris histroides, >and their hybrids, they are long-lived in the garden in areas not >watered in summer. They flower best if planted deeply. The problem >is that most commercial stock is infected with ink spot disease, >which soon debilitates the plants once they are not subject to the >Dutch cycle of lifting, treatment, and controlled storage. Growing >I. reticulata from wild-collected seed was a revelation for me: >plants three times the size of commercial varieties, and setting big >seed pods. > >A few bearded irises have persisted here, notably I. albertii, wild >forms of I. pallida, and I. subbiflora. <snip> >Some Juno irises seem to be doing all right outdoors here, in >particular I. magnifica, I. vicaria, and I. bucharica, all of which >are readily available. I grow them on the rock garden. Now I'm >trying some selections of the Regelia species I. stolonifera >outdoors. Oncocyclus irises cannot be grown in the open in the >Pacific Northwest, and hardly can be grown under cover, unless you >use fungicides and keep them dry until late winter. > >The bulbous irises of the Xiphium section are represented in our >gardens mostly by "Dutch" irises, which don't persist here over many >years since their winter-growing foliage gets frozen. Far better is >the "English" (actually Spanish) Iris latifolia, <snip> >Iris unguicularis is increasingly grown in the Pacific Northwest, >though it can be expected to suffer in our colder winters. (I keep >some in the bulb frame as insurance.) Its close relative I. lazica >is more cold-hardy and flourishes here, as do most plants from the >Pontic region, its home. <snip> >Spuria irises do very well here, but they are grown mainly by >specialists, since they take up a lot of space for the sake of a >very short season of proportionately small flowers. Siberian irises >are fine as long as I get them in spots where the soil is retentive >enough. Iris cristata cannot be grown here because of the slugs, >which love it intensely. Japanese irises (I. ensata) do not flower >for me, I suspect because of too much night cooling at this >elevation; they are hot-and-humid-summer plants and do fine on the >valley floor 1500 feet (500 m) below me. -- *~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~** Owned by Jasper & Schubert the Standard Poodles, Pup-Quiz the Basenji, puppy Basenji boy, Jones, & Gracie the Rhodesian susanann@sbcglobal.net On the North Coast of CA, USA, copyright 2004