mdb - miniature dwarf bearded                        sdb - standard dwarf bearded                        ib - intermediate bearded
mtb - miniature tall bearded                             bb  - border bearded                                   tb - tall bearded

Top of our favourites, this year are our own 2008 standard dwarf bearded introductions.  INSPECTOR PHYLLIS, SDB,  is called after the Massachusetts Dept of Agric. inspector who comes to our gardens each year and who we count as a particular friend. INSPECTOR PHYLLIS, 13.5" tall, blooming mid-season, quickly makes a clump.  As it spreads out, It puts up many stalks, holding the blossoms well above the foliage.   There are a lot of blossoms with white ruffly standards over spreading falls of lemon edged white.   Give it plenty of room to spread.
HERMIT'S HONEY BUZZ, sdb, the other 2008 introduction, blooming just a little after INSPECTOR PHYLLIS, but around the same height, also is a great grower, clumping up fast and sending up plenty of flower stalks.  The petals are neither white nor blue but a combination of both, with a touch of honey swirling around the blue white beards, tangerine in the throat.

We never tire of looking at the miniature dwarf bearded, the tallest reach at best, 8", and most are around 5" - 6".
Because we'd moved our own mdb's, we didn't see them bloom last year.  However, we saw a lot of WEE DOLL.  We'd been discussing it with Lucy Burton, another New England hybridizer, so we kept looking at it.  It really is beautiful with the subtle pink-lavender shades in standards and falls.   It was bred by Wilma Greenlee and introduced by Varner in 1981.  Registration lists it at 5" but it is a little bigger.  Probably reaches almost 7.5" here. Nevertheless, it's one of our present favourites.
This is ELFIN MAGIC,  (Willott).  It is so prolific, in fact it keeps cropping up in different parts of the MDB bed where we tuck the odd tiny pieces which get left over from shipping because they're not big enough.  They all grow and are particularly distinctive as the top edges of the standards are serrated.

FOOTPRINT (Brown)   Our MDB's are not scattered gracefully throughout the beds, rather we have our plants rowed out alphabetically, by sort.  FOOTPRINT happens to be earlier than those around it so when it blooms it is always one of those which cause a full pause.  We stop, admire the solid clean colours, the flower sitting atop the foliage quite distinctly, and the creamy white beards.  So this always gets full attention and admiration.

DERBY BOY (Willott)  is very distinctive with its blue beards on brown spot. And there's JOLLY JOEY what a prolific grower!

As we've said, one of the first of the sdb's to bloom in our front display bed is Lucy Burton's, standard dwarf bearded, LEMON CHILL (SDB) (Burton)   Everyone loves LEMON CHILL.  It is rugged, an excellent grower, puts up plenty of blossom, and is very pretty.  We're very partial to white beards and think they add a delicate touch to any iris.  It's a pretty lemon, with ruffling to the standards and flaring falls highlighted by the white beards.

RIVERBUDS, standard dwarf bearded  (Godfrey)  forms a massive clump and puts up numerous stalks with pretty blue blossoms.  We love this one as it has it all together.  The deeper coloured beards, slight whiskers, pretty slight ruffling of the standards - our customers always stop and look at clumps of this one and invariably add RIVERBUDS to their order.

Then there's our standard dwarf bearded, LEAH GRACE SCOTT, deepest violet,  in the classic luminata pattern, with fat standards and falls, from BLACK STAR X STAR BABY, and   LINDISFARNE, with its lovely rounded slightly rippled standards and falls in shimmering white. CHEEKY KID, (Schmieder) another standard dwarf bearded is a lovely plicata with exuberant growth habits.   The eyecatcher is the deep violet full colour of the style crests peeking out from the rounded standards. TYRIAN VELVET, John Burton's standard dwarf bearded has always been a particular favourite since it was on trial in our gardens.  It has excellent growth habits, and plenty of flower stalks, what more can you ask.
 
 

In the miniature tall bearded iris group are, AMONG FRIENDS (Varner)  a very nice grower and particularly eye-catching in clumps.  Can't forget CHEESE AND WINE (MTB)  a very welcome addition to the reds in the miniature tall bearded list bringing a new vitality to this group's colour.
Then there's CRAFTED  (Dunderman)(MTB)  This pink is so pretty and the best part is, it, too, is an easy grower clumping up well with plenty of stalks.

ELFIN SHADOWS by Lucy Burton,  a prolific grower, plenty of blossoms, makes excellent clumps.   Fits into the landscape well, with plenty of stalks showing off the pretty lavender blooms.
 

And, finally,  LADY TARA, and SARA'S CHILD miniature tall bearded irises by VARNER.  They match up to his high standards and our expectations.  Two lovely plants which add charm to the miniature tall bearded iris bed.

Martha Hutcheson, hybridizer here in New England, introduced one of the all time favourites, intermediate LUCKY OLD SUN, which we think is the most beautiful golden yellow. This is another favourite of our customers, too.

Of note (but sadly no images):  BREAK YOLK,  a pretty lemon and white SDB by David Miller, grows very well here in New England and our customers like that one.  We like his NEON NYMPH, SDB in deep blue with lighter beards, which is very pretty, too, as well as being a determined grower and notable.    As I said, our irises are in rows, alphabetically placed.  When NEON NYMPH bloomed last year, we had to walk to the other side of the bed and check to see what was blooming so brightly.   Popular with our customers, too.

DOROTHY DAVENPORT, TB, NICHOLS, a lovely orange tall bearded which actually grew and bloomed here gets our vote, too.  It comes from Texas, so the climate is very different and not all southern bred irises grow well here.  We had over three dozen tall bearded we'd tried from the south as well as west coast and had only perhaps 6 - 8 survive.    Our gardens are fairly open to the toughness of winters as there's nothing to stop north winds howling across the frozen icy swamp behind the gardens.  The irises which survive do well.

I think we mentioned Lowell Baumunk's arilmed, PERSIAN SAPPHIRE (www.iriscolorado.com),  which grows very well here in among the other irises, no special attention, no drier place for it.  It was lovely.  It also puts up plenty of increase.  It doesn't have that habit of fading away in the summer like some of the arils, making it difficult to sell.
Lowell's INTROSPECTION  which has never failed to bloom each year, is a lovely lavender luminata/plicata tall bearded.  The shape is perfect, ruffles, height, everything it should be.  Always gets our vote.

HABIT (tall bearded, from Paul Black, Mid America Gardens) isn't it gorgeous?    It stands straight throughout the bloom season, buds open sequentially - don't want them to open two at a time sshortening the bloom season.  Blooming all in a row - it melts your heart!
NAPLES (Johnson) another tall bearded which is exquisite.  Can't seem to keep it, customers keep buying it!  Bud count is good, it stands straight, good growing habits, yes, it gets our vote, too.

We generally buy tall bearded from Schreiner's who can always be relied upon to give great service, as well as great irises.  They list bud count of most irises so we know what length of bloom we'll get.

BLUEBERRY BLISS (Schreiner's)TB, and I FEEL GOOD (Schreiner's)TB, survived our harsh winter and we're looking forward to outstanding bloom this year (the weather has been particularly kind so far).

Then  because we think some of the daylilies deserve special mention, here's a list of our favourites.  Bill Maryott has given us permission to use some of his images from his website.  He has some of the loveliest daylily introductions on the web.

ALONE AT SEA (Hanson)  BERTIE FERRIS (Winniford) CAMEO LUSTER (Maryott) DILEMMA (Maryott) LATIN RHYTHM, (Maryott) MY MELINDA PANDORA'S TREASURE, (Maryott)

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