Ok, I have the most clueless of newbie questions...I am struggling here trying to decide how I want to plant the iris beds in the front of the house. If I plant for a big show - all blooming at the same general time, I'll have nothing but foliage after the bloom. So do I want to stagger the bloom times? Then I won't have color combos but I'll have extended color for the spring. Then it dawned on me; I can see where a cultivar says mid. Or early mid. Or mid late...etc. But what does this actually mean? How much overlap is there - do these designations average 2 week segments of time, more, less? Trying to figure out when in the season I might expect bloom is very confusing to me. From early to late, how many weeks of bloom time are we talking about? Thanks!

Last year, 36 of my tall bearded irises bloomed. The first one bloomed on October 6th. The last day of flowering was November 17th except for Ring Around Rosie which continued blooming until December 5th. My tall bearded irises gave me 6 weeks of blooming plus a straggler. I also have a few sdbs and intermediates which begin flowering a couple weeks before the talls.

I don't have a lot of space so most of my irises only produce one to three flower stems. They typically flower from 10 to 25 days. It various a lot depending on the hybrid. For example, one stalk of Absolute Treasure flowered for 22 days but one stalk of Ballet Performance flowered for 10 days.

I see the registered bloom seasons of early, mid, late etc as a guide for which irises will bloom first and not as a date range. Irises will bloom on any day and there is plenty of overlap between the bloom seasons.

Thanks Robin, that's a big part of what I was asking - the amount of weeks generally between early and late - I just wasn't being too articulate! (in my defense I was caffeine free for two days, lol). I'm thinking I'm going to se overlapping blooms anyhow, which is a relief.

I have found that the blooming time also varies from year to year (and moreso if it is the first season after planting). The registered bloom season is useful, but I would treat it as a rough guide only.

Position will influence the time of bloom too and wet/hot weather can limit the time the irises are in bloom.

For me and bloom times, it it all about spring. How late we get snow in April or May, and then how quickly it warms up.

I am recording my bloom times. It is somewhat a tedious task, as I go through all the individual pictures and from there I gather the bloom times. I don't go through the garden and write down every single iris when it blooms, but later, I go through the pictures. Some have a repeat bloom, though not necessarily a rebloomer. Like some bloom in May, then later in June. And some bloom off and on almost continuously. (And, of course, some don't bloom!)

My Zone 8 is based on the lowest winter temperature, but my bloom season is much later than others in Zone 8. Sometimes spring is colder than winter, but not usually, but most often the winter chill is still in the air.

I like the idea of keeping records - I have a weird love of playing Mad Scientist, and keeping a journal with weather conditions, etc will fit right in. It's pretty much the only nerdy thing I do, lol

Cindy ~ You will thank yourself later on if you keep good records. And since you like to do this activity, it will give you an idea of what "early" and "late" are in your garden.

@cinvasko

Wanted to comment on your beautiful cat. I love cats but my body doesn't so haven't had one since I was a teen.

On the topic of length of bloom season. This year my first SDB bloomed a full week (late April) later than last year and I still had a few flowers on the 20th of June. If you have the room, I recommend you add some dwarves and medians to extend your season.

They are easy to grow and start early when the garden really needs some colour to compliment the spring bulbs!

My cat Taz thanks you for the compliment, Charlette! lol She's 19 years old, although she was about 16 when I took that pic.