Thank you to Linda Wilkie for an update from her garden in Omaha, Nebraska for the weeks of April 27 – May 6^th  :

SDBs: Artful, Cat’s Eye, Comeback Trail, Gimlet Jewel, Gingerbread Man, Honey Cat, Irish Chant, Little Blackfoot, Orange Tiger, Overcast, Pitter Patter, Ruby Locket, Sapphire Gem, Solar Gleam, Sun Doll, Tantara, Ultimate, What Again, Wow

MDBs: Libation

IBs:  Az Ap, Butter Pecan, Black Magic, Blue Eyed Blond, Constant Companion,  Hula Hands, Lemon Pop, Maui Moonlight, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rare Edition, Raspberry Blush, Sangreal, Voila, Wampum

TBs:  Blue Sapphire, Champagne Elegance, Ebony Queen, Imperial Blush (not confirmed), Rosalie Figge

Constant Companion was in bloom a full 22 days in my garden and it is a re-bloomer to boot, often beginning its next cycle of bloom in late July!  If you don’t grow this particular little iris it is a good reblooming choice for our area, look for it at your local AIS affiliate’s sale this summer.  Tall Bearded iris are throwing up stalks all over the garden so it looks like we will be right on track for peak bloom around the third week of May.

Thank you to Dottie Ladman for more observations from Lincoln, Nebraska.

April 19–Jillaroo, Stitch Witch
April 23–Honey Cat
April 24–Constant Companion
April 25–VaVoom, Cat’s Eye, Comeback Trail
April 26–Baby Blessed
April 30–Doxa
May 1–Apricot Fancy
May 2–Spanish Empire, i. germanica, L. Merton Gage, Golden Bow
May 3–Florentina, Maui Moonlight
May 4–Queen Dorothy, Honey Glazed
May 5–Pink Latte, Blue-Eyed Blonde
May 6–Buto, Coronation
May 8–Gracchus, Ming
May 10–Sable, Dragon’s Tooth, Golden Rial, Abelard

Thank you to Linda Wilkie for this contribution.

Blooming at the Sass Memorial Display Garden for the week of April 27^th: (Located at Mahoney State Park near Ashland, Nebraska)

SDBs:  Forever Blue, Baby Blessed, Comeback Trail, What Again,

IBs:  Rare Edition, Bottled Sunshine, Starwoman, MidSummer Night’s Dream, Constant Companion, Cosette, Southland,

TBs:  Miss Aravilla, Barn Dance

Bloom seems to be pretty much on track for a normal season with peak TB bloom anticipated about the third-fourth week in May.  Bloom has begun in the Reblooming bed and the Median bed should be in full bloom for Mother’s Day weekend.

Thank you to Gary White for letting us know how blooming 2015 is happening in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Here’s what I have in bloom in my Lincoln garden in southeast Nebraska so far this spring (after the small bulbous reticulatas):

My bearded bloom started on April 15 with Red Heart (SDB) and Baby Baron (SDB)
The next day, April 16, I had my first MDB – Libation, in bloom.
The next few days there were numerous irises coming into bloom, including 3 more MDBs – Grey Pearls, Minikin, and Zipper.

Rose Mist is an H.P. Sass iris from 1931 and was listed as a DB in the 1939 checklist.  DB irises (for Dwarf Bearded) included all irises up to and including 17 inches in height.  Rose Mist today would be included in the SDB class, but there was only one class back then for all dwarf irises under 18 inches in height.  The Iris Encyclopedia lists Rose Mist as an MDB based on the DB designation in effect in 1939.  Rose Mist started blooming on April 19.

We have 31 other SDBs in bloom now.  Those include (in sequence of bloom): Just A Croc, Cup Cake, Cherry Garden, Wow, Knotty Pine, What Again, Ooh La La, People Pleaser, Minikin, Jilleroo, Pink Fawn, Sweet N Neat, Smell The Roses, Seventy Seven, Jewel of Jakarta, Plum Perfect.

Then yesterday, the following 8 came into bloom:  Doe Z Doe, Wedgewood Blue, Being Busy, Blue Denim, Do Si Do, Blue Mascara, and Ice and Indigo.
Today (April 23) the following SDBs opened the first time this year:  Irish Chant, Petite Polka, Rosalie Loving, Acey Deucy, Limpid Pools, Born Free, Abba Alias Abba, and Neutron.

And the most amazing iris to bloom this early is an unnamed Siberian iris I have had about 4 years.  It started blooming about 5 days ago and is an almost electric blue, with numerous open flowers today.  None of the other Siberians are even showing buds yet.  It was extremely early last year as well, so its in its genetics, I think.  I will have to look into saving some pollen and making crosses to obtain very early blooming Siberians.

Several of the irises are historic (introduced prior to 1986), and 15 of those listed above were introductions from Allan Ensminger, a Lincoln hybridizer.

Another entry for the 2015 bloom schedule.  This time thanks to Linda Wilkie for what’s been blooming in Omaha:

Iris danfordiae; March 20^th
Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’; March 23rd
‘Constant Companion’ IB; April13th first bearded bloom in our garden
‘Wow’ SDB; April 16^th
‘Sun Doll’ SDB April 18^th

Can you help us identify what is blooming when and where this year?  You can see all the entries we have so far by clicking on either the tag bloom time or the category bloom time at the bottom of any of the individual entries.

Note the iris links go to the Iris Encyclopedia entries for the respective irises.

‘Ruby Locket’ – First 2015 Bloom

It’s that time of year when we start expecting to see, or maybe already have seen. the first irises.  Which can be very variable depending on the weather and maybe other influences.  With that in mind, we thought it could be helpful to have information on when irises are blooming in the Region in more or less real time.  Then you, your friends and neighbors, and visitors will know when to see the irises.  When/where to see the early irises.  When is the peak bloom time in your garden this year?  When is the best time to see public displays in our Region this year?  Hopefully all of these will be addressed.

As a start, here is our first bloom of 2015 on April 15th.  It is ‘Ruby Locket’, a SDB listed as midseason bloom.  It has consistently been our first bloomer, probably partly due to a semi-protected location on the south side of the house.  Location:  Central Iowa, south of Ames.  Previous years:  April 2, 2012; May 11, 2013; May 5, 2014.

Do you have some bloom observations we can add to the list?  You can either leave them as a comment or email the webmaster wrmesser@gmail.com to have them added.  Thank you.