Or you could wait for the sale and get twice as many cultivars for the same original price...

But the best cultivars sell out early, which is why I never wait for sales. I want what I want, snd usually end up culling substitutions.

I was just teasing Derylin. I suspect the year-end sales include mostly cultivars that didn't sell well and so they have a lot of inventory.

Oh, I got a new Schreiners in the mail today. It is different from my first one. Wow, love some of the new intros!

I usually have had to pare down my order from my wish list, if they are on sale, then I have been known to get them too. There always seems to be several in stock that meet my approval.

That made me laugh Tom So true, not a plant person!

Hoo boy! I had to be restrained because of my finances and space issues this year, especially with new baby iris on the way. Brad's advice greatly influenced what I decided to purchase, as well as some wish list things. First year I didn't order from Mid-America because it is a danger zone for me - there are so many there I love and some that I am obsessed with but I passed them by to get instead iris Brad recommended

First order was from Iris Sisters






It had become an obsession to get Baltimore. It's funny because when it was more widely available I wasn't especially drawn to it, and now it's hard to find. Blue J had it last year but it was sold out by the time I got there, so I literally went there on opening minute this year to get it, and it wasn't even listed. But they did have some other wishes





In my quest for Baltimore, I found a new place, Chestnut Acres, which seems like a collector selling a few iris rather than a big commercial operation - a very nice collection of iris there. so I ordered

and to keep it company

Nice order. I could have sent you Baltimore last year with your box. Where was my head?

Nice order.I have 8 of what you ordered,Lyn..Several have not bloomed for me yet, but I like the ones that have.

LOL! Of course you do :)

KyDeltaD said: Nice order.I have 8 of what you ordered,Lyn..Several have not bloomed for me yet, but I like the ones that have.

I have plenty of space, just not the money or the space for every iris I have liked or ever will like..

That's the problem

With finite space and resources, how does anyone ever decide from the catalogues of so many beautiful irises? I'm fairly new to the iris world, are there any varieties that people tend to really love? Or how does everyone even go about trying to decide what to add to their collection Suppose I'm really asking for tips on how not to order dozens and dozens

It's a task that can cause people like me to lose a bit of hair, When I started out I just chose based on whether I like the bloom, and my favorite colors. I'd place them in the garden thinking that they would look good together, then found out that they all bloom at different times, and even though they would have looked good together, one might be finished blooming before the other started. I guess if I could start over knowing what I've learned, I'd pay more attention to other factors like bloom time, stalk height, etc. Shorter ones in the front, taller in back. Also very early bloomers here will often get frost damage, so I tend to order more of the M to L irises. In warmer zones, it's the later ones that get hit with very hot temps and they don't seem to do as well.

You can screen out the colors you don't like, the ones that are too expensive. If you have a lot of room and endless money and energy, buy them all! If you have a lot of space to fill, but limited funds, get more of the cheaper ones. If a lot of space is not available, but you have unlimited funds, get a few of the expensive ones you like the most. I guess the answer to your question is situational based on your needs, wants and abilities.

@NovaBelle
We could play a game here to help you by each of us making a list of say, ten we recommend, but we'd first have to know what you like. There are a bazillion irises, and so many different tastes.
1)Are there colors you really like/dislike?
2) Do you like bright/dark/pastel colors?
3) There are different size iris from dwarf to tall. Which appeal to you?
4) There are different flower forms from very ruffled to smooth.
5) There are various patterns from solid color, bi-color and different types of color patterns. Anything you especially like?

I'm a person with limited space and budget too, so I understand the difficulty of choosing. The one thing I'd warn against in the budget area - avoid new intros - you can buy them in a couple of years for half the price. The price of an iris, unlike many other things, is not an indication of its quality. The price goes down with age. Many iris that won the top awards a few years ago, and are still stunning, can be found for around $10, versus this years intro of something for $60

I order what I like, but I google it first and look for pics here or on Wiki Iris. Then I grow it for awhile. If it hems and haws and dithers, out it goes. If I get one bloom and then.....nothing, or bloom out, which usually kills it anyway, out it goes. Unless I really, truly am in love with the bloom. Then I will try to baby it along. If the stalks are too puny to stand up to PNW weather, out it goes. I've got enough on my plate without having to stake every last one. Once I've seen it bloom a couple times, if I don't like the way the color presents, out it goes.
Oddly enough, I don't seek out rebloomers. I like my spring iris bloom, but once fall hits, it just doesn't seem like "iris time" to me.

One year I only ordered Wister Medal winners. The Wister Medials are awarded by AIS judges for their garden performance. It's not a bad place to start.

LynNY said: @NovaBelle
We could play a game here to help you by each of us making a list of say, ten we recommend, but we'd first have to know what you like. There are a bazillion irises, and so many different tastes.
1)Are there colors you really like/dislike?
2) Do you like bright/dark/pastel colors?
3) There are different size iris from dwarf to tall. Which appeal to you?
4) There are different flower forms from very ruffled to smooth.
5) There are various patterns from solid color, bi-color and different types of color patterns. Anything you especially like?

I'm a person with limited space and budget too, so I understand the difficulty of choosing. The one thing I'd warn against in the budget area - avoid new intros - you can buy them in a couple of years for half the price. The price of an iris, unlike many other things, is not an indication of its quality. The price goes down with age. Many iris that won the top awards a few years ago, and are still stunning, can be found for around $10, versus this years intro of something for $60

1) Some of the favorite ones in my garden have had very saturated, intense colors. For instance, the deep red of 'Cat's Eye', I have a dark purple NOID, and I think even the jeweled pink of 'Autumn Rose'.
2) I think I alluded to it in the first, but dark colors tend to appeal most.
3) I like the grandness of the TB, especially with browsing catalogues, but I've had the experience where some TB tend to fall over so frequently, or have poor branching.
4) I think when it comes to form, slightly ruffled...I have "Silverado" and "Fiddlin' around' and I think those both have lovely forms.
5) I like them all, though plicata are probably my least favorite. I like the look of luminatas, but they begin to feel very similar to each other. Bitones and bicolors are very pretty, ameonas too.

Thank you!!

Belle, check out this: https://www.irises.org/wp-cont...

and this: https://wiki.irises.org/Main/I...

I, too am very limited on space, with just a quarter acre. And no matter how pretty a color combo is, I won't buy it if the flower doesn't show consistently good form. There are too many lovely irises out there to settle for ones that have less than optimal form when I have such limited space. So whenever I see one that I might like, I Google the name followed by the word "iris." Then I switch my browser to display images, rather than "all". That shows me if the flower has the type of form that I like, with the standards bowing out and then in at the top, in graceful fashion. I also look particularly closely at clumps as seen from a distance to see whether a particular bicolor iris looks messy en mass. Unfortunately, many of them do. I don't want that in my garden. My rear garden is visible from the front street, and I don't want it to have a messy effect.

Thanks for the tips @DaisyDo. With a small space, it definitely is not enough to go based off color, catalogue picture, etc. alone.

Not to mention that unfortunately the catalog photos are often photoshopped to make a cultivar look better than it really is. So the more pictures you can see of a cultivar before you make your decision, the better.