Today my order from Iris Sisters Farm came in. There were a bunch of bonuses in it - labeled with "xtra". There were also several not labeled as such in addition to the three that made up my invoice. I was worried that they somehow packed someone else's order with mine so I emailed them to let them know. Then I came to my plant list here and looked them up...only to see they were in my list as ordered in 2020 from them! lol. So did I add to my order? I only have the one invoice in the box with three iris on it. I sent them a second email explaining my confusion and why my first email may have made me sound daft (as if the second email didn't). I don't keep records of my orders - I use the plant list here for that. So even if I sounded like an idiot to them at least I did the right thing by contacting them in case I needed to forward an order out to the right home. btw, as many of you must know, they send out amazing rhizomes! But I feel like the village idiot and my brain's only getting older...

Cindy ~ Stop worrying and plant your irises. And yes, keep a record of what you received, and when and from whom. Maps, charts, lists...etc.

If you have a notebook for this purpose, all the better. Then it will show any additions that you may have made to any original orders. If you lose internet connection, will you have a list of your irises and where they are located?

I think that is what most of us do...not entirely sure...

As far as what's planted, I label everything in the garden - I don't have a written record of most plant locations though because I'm constantly moving things. I do keep a written list of what I have and the general bed it's in. I was only worried because I thought I might have someone else's iris too - so I didn't want to plant them (and I only just got home for work). As it turns out she emailed me and said she forgot to print a full invoice so it wasn't just me! lol I'm a pretty informal gardener who only make maps of the bigger things like shrubs and trees, and whether the footage between them is full or not.

We never mapped our garden & it is a big mistake because now lost labels & lost memory is really messing things up.

With the constant critter happenings, a map is mandatory in my garden. Without the maps, I would have 100's and 100's of NoIDs.

A map has saved me more than once when I put iris A's tag by iris B and vice versa.

Cindy,
I take lots of photos of my beds with the labels visible as well as keeping visual maps.

I have a spreadsheet that lists all my plants. It has a number I assigned (based in the order they were ordered in), the name, the primary colors, the type, the registered height and the bloom season. I will work on adding photos as well going forward. I started it before I went off the deep end and ordered 98 different varieties lol the purpose early on was so that I knew which I had, and the height/colors so that while I was out in the garden I could access it easily from my phone to determine where newcomers would go. The joy of Apple products I can work on the spreadsheet on my Macbook and pull it up on my phone whenever needed.

Kim you are way more organized than I am. I usually label my irises and that's it but at the new place I'm going to aim for labels and maps. LoL I think I'd be to lazy to make spreadsheets.