> [Iris douglasiana has] a much longer time in my garden than Iris > unguicularis... About 25 years ago, I was ill with hepatitis that required weekly visits to the doctor. From early December when I was diagnosed to the end of February I took his receptionist a weekly bouquet of I. unquicularis. It was a fairly mild winter that year, no sub-freezing temperatures to speak of, and my patch of this lovely iris pumped out flowers continuously all that time. I'm tempted to tease Mary Sue about having an inferior form on her hands, but being a Very Nice guy I won't even mention the subject. The interesting thing about I.u. is that though I acquired several supposed cultivars of it over the years, they all looked the same except for a white=flowered form that didn't survive. Growing conditions: the bed is at the foot of a white stucco house wall facing south and which gets full sun day long. Soil is a non-sticky-when-wet blonde clay that the glacier left behind 10,000 years ago, with horrible blue marine clay 9-10' down. Being at the foot of a house walls means that the bed is partially protected from rain, and the house perimeter drains keep it from getting too wet in winter. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate