When visiting her gardens, I am reminded to keep mine small. I can barely manage what I have. That, of course, includes the whole landscape.

I keep the irises within a fenced garden area so the deer and the occasional horde of turkeys do not mess with them.

Edited to say that there are plenty of gophers here too! (So far, they haven't eaten any iris!) I have been applying Molemax in their holes. If I have to, I will start trapping them. I never thought about freezing them for feed for animal shelters. Gopher stew anyone?

You are lucky that the gophers haven't gotten any irises (or maybe it is the Molemax, whatever that is... I'll have to look it up). Some years ago, I had two large clumps of 'Arctic Express'. The gophers got all of one clump before I knew what was going on!

Re blue beards.. This year I got 'Bluebeard' , 'Emilo', and 'Blue Fin', and I saw my first blooms on 'Alien Mist' (thanks, Mary Ann!). Most of these were mentioned earlier in the thread. (Trying not to thread drift here. )

I have put Blackbeard, Concertina and Alien Mist on my want list.

I think blue beards look beautiful with black irises too

Lovely!

Polymerous said:You are lucky that the gophers haven't gotten any irises (or maybe it is the Molemax, whatever that is... I'll have to look it up). Some years ago, I had two large clumps of 'Arctic Express'. The gophers got all of one clump before I knew what was going on!

Re blue beards.. This year I got 'Bluebeard' , 'Emilo', and 'Blue Fin', and I saw my first blooms on 'Alien Mist' (thanks, Mary Ann!). Most of these were mentioned earlier in the thread. (Trying not to thread drift here. )

• Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Emilo')
• Uploaded by Calif_Sue

I should get Emilo as one of my late dog's name was Emy Lo, and it would look good in my Dog memorial bed. I noticed that it's described
as a light blue self, yet your picture has yellow falls. None of the other pictures show the yellow in the falls.

I've grown Emilo for several years, Tom, and never had even one flower from it that showed any yellow.

The picture that Polymerous linked to was added to the database by Sue courtesy of Blue J Iris. Quite a few of the pictures from Blue J show irises as being more yellow than they are in real life. It might be a quirk of the camera they use. Or, it might simply be that Blue J was located in Alliance, Nebraska on the High Plains. Sunlight in that part of the world, especially in the evenings, has more of a yellow quality to it than is typically seen elsewhere.

Also grew a sibling of Emilo called Clyde, which I liked a bit better. But, I don't think it survived when we moved last year.

Thanks Kent, for the explanation. I would like a yellow one with dark blue beards though. I do have Blind Ambition, but it hasn't bloomed yet, and I think the beard is more violet then blue.

Can anyone suggest sources for the following irises with dark blue beards? Bluebird lists only three of them.

Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Alien Mist')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Azure Apogee')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Barbara Jean')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Big Buck')
Border Bearded Iris (Iris 'Blackbeard')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Blue Fin')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Codicil')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Electric Shock')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Jordan's Joy')
Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Skye')

Sorry, double posted with phone..(deleted)!

Carol ~ I just went to Bluebird Haven and found
Blue Luster and
Blue Staccato (blue tip)

Ok, they are probably not dark enough, but they are blue.

tveguy3 said:Thanks Kent, for the explanation. I would like a yellow one with dark blue beards though. I do have Blind Ambition, but it hasn't bloomed yet, and I think the beard is more violet then blue.

Tom ~ If you don't mind having an SDB, Blueberry Muffins is yellow with a blue beard.

Carol, Blue J Iris has 'Blue Fin' and 'Blackbeard'... that's where I got them from this past year. (I didn't look to see which of the others they might have.)

Tom and Kent - the database described 'Emilo' as having "creamy tints" to the otherwise blue. My rhizome is new, so I haven't seen it in bloom.

I just found a beauty at C and T Iris Patch.

Tall Bearded Iris (Iris 'Casual Elegance')

Edited to say that the beard is not blue, but brown! The picture at C and T is prettier than the database.

Just in case you missed some old threads Carol, try Tbfinder.com
http://www.tbfinder.com/

Polymerous said:Carol, Blue J Iris has 'Blue Fin' and 'Blackbeard'... that's where I got them from this past year. (I didn't look to see which of the others they might have.)

Marilyn,
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Blue J. However, their website says that they are moving to Texas for 2018 and that they sold all their Nebraska stock before moving. Perhaps they will be in transition for a while.

Totally_Amazing said:Just in case you missed some old threads Carol, try Tbfinder.com
http://www.tbfinder.com/

Robin,
Thank you for the link to tbfinder.com! That is an amazing and wonderfully beneficial project! I had not seen it before, probably because I haven't been much of an iris grower for the past few years. By the way, everyone, there is a place to vote for sources that you would like to see added to the current list of 20.

I am timidly venturing back into irises after being defeated by borers several years ago and banishing all my irises to an out-of-the way garden. Ironically, they have been happy and free of borers there, so in the summer of 2017, I added 14 more TBs. I had not known about irises with dark blue beards before this thread, and now I am totally smitten by them!

evelyninthegarden said:Carol ~ I just went to Bluebird Haven and found
Blue Luster and
Blue Staccato (blue tip)

Ok, they are probably not dark enough, but they are blue.

Thank you, Evelyn! I love Blue Luster and added it to my want list. I haven't learned to like plicatas yet, so I probably wouldn't add Blue Staccato even if its entire beard were dark blue. (Maybe plicatas are prettier in person than their pictures...)

I contacted Blue J Iris and learned that they expect move to Texas next week and will have Blue Fin, Codicil and Skye for sale in 2018. The website will be updated in January.

Carol ~ Oh, I thought that they already moved. I suppose that they were digging irises all during fall.

They do have a nice selection. Don't be shocked when you receive your order, as they trim the roots severely. The irises manage to grow new ones, but I always thought it the roots anchor the plant in place.

They are all doing fine now. I staked them temporarily with short pieces of bamboo.