BRAD!!!!!

All hail the Grand Pooh-Bah!!

There's at least 5 of the new intro's on my wish list!

I'm weighing my options.......be frugal or go for broke

Are those Iris names or your financial state of affairs Paul?

Go for broke!!! Life is short -- maximize every minute!!

Show it to your friends. Perhaps they will discover irises & you can visit to their garden.

Adding my voice to the praise for Brad's photos. He's the best!

everybody for the wonderful comments !!! I have not received mine yet hopefully this week will get home from work and find his catalog it in the mailbox really excited to see which ones got names from Joe's garden there were just way to many excellent choices to pick from in his seedlings so looking forward to the surprise and seeing them again in April, It has been 60's here the past couple days and our forecast has 70's in it this week spring has finally made it to Iowa, started clearing dead leaves off of my main seedling bed this weekend to see what Winter left me to work with and at this point I came out of it really well

Oh, I hope so Brad. You took a real beating last year.

Still worrying about our plants under the snow, although medians usually fare better than TBs. Also not used to having the weight of our present snow.

Mary Ann.. It is going to be a great spring here lot's of green showing and the growth on last year's crop of seedlings was better than I expected should get to see a lot of them bloom. I am finding some Botrytis and winter kill in there but nothing like last year and some of that is to be expected with the hard winter we had again multiple days in the -15 range. I think the difference this year was during the worst of it we had a lot of snow cover so it insulated the plants and protected them from the harsh winds. It will take a couple weeks to get through all the beds but so far so good

Lucy..Hopefully you guys come out OK and they had just had a little extra insulation this year.

Brad...is Botrytis the cause of 'soft rot' or is it something else?

It's great to hear you came through the winter in good shape! I'm also glad to hear your seedlings did well...and looking forward to your pictures of the ones that bloom!

Now we can hope for a good turnout for the rest of the gang who are still waiting for the spring melt to reach them! (Insert smily with crossed fingers here!)

Marilyn.. No it is different than soft rot Botyrtis looks like a grey mold on the bulb and is real distinctive I can spot it quickly now that I know what I'm looking for when you grab the leaves the top pops off in your hand and it has almost a freeze dried look to he bulb, what I had last year was different it was a dark brown rot with no smell and I am guessing it is what is described as winter kill although it may be some form of Botrytis as well but I could not find much information on it anywhere. I have some of both this year again in pockets will take some pictures tomorrow so you can see the difference and yes lot's of pictures of seedlings if anything is interesting in there

Thanks...I would be interested in seeing the pics of Boytyris. I'm trying to figure out the difference between soft rot and crown rot (the causes...cure, etc... I know about the smell) and now it sounds like there is at least one more type of rot. At some point it might be helpful to have a thread discussion with photos of the various kinds of rot and anything that can be done to avoid or minimize them. It would be good for future reference and for newcomers looking for information. Maybe an idea for a tip for iris week if anyone has photos and experience?

Marilyn, that's a Great idea!

We have had some soft rot in the past, but never Boytritis. There is a good drainage in our area so perhaps that is the reason.

Brad -- you're getting me excited!! I may be taking a trip to Iowa this spring!! Tom -- are you listening?

Already have my bags packed, I'm not sure he could handle two nutcase irisaholics drooling all over the place at once, he may have to build some drainage ditches.

His stuff is up on "Berms" so I don't think it is an issue with the drool factor (The other nice thing about berms is that you are looking out at the irises rather than down at them!)