It's a labor of love. My wife got me interested in Irises years ago when we went to the Iris Festival in Dennison, TX. The owner of the Iris farm is very old now and it's getting to be too much work to thin them out. Now he just gives the risomes away rather than selling them. They used to go for anywhere from $8.00 up to $25.00 for the really rare ones. Over the past few years we have aquired around 60 different varieties, all for free, and now they all have their place in the sun in my yard for all to see and enjoy. I'll have to post a picture next April.

I thought this might belong here as it deals with pollination. a beautiful little video. Well worth sharing I think.

http://www.youtube.com/v/xHkq1edcbk4?version=3

thanks for posting, great vid! amazing planet of life eh?

yeah I thought it was well worth watching too

That is stunning. The colors are vivid and the birds and insects are too. I've never seen bat wings in slow motion in flight close up before - fascinating. Thanks Akky, that was very enjoyable.

I took these pictures using a Galaxy Tab 10.1
Then I altered them using an Android app called "PicsIn Magic"

these appear to be color curves. Anyway, they were 'happy accidents' and I love how they turned out.

They are very beautiful Cecilia. I love the way they blend into the background.

This One is my favorite...

Finally, this year, the mini-rose hedge is more hedge then medusa (took over 3 years to train them; still haven't trimmed the top since I want the hedge to grow a little higher, but I have trimmed the sides in early March already). Thought I would share the flower collection here too. Feel free to play if you want. Click image below for link to the collection.

Here are two recent ones.

taken with my phone 8mp camera on DROID razr.

Osteospurmum:


Senetti:


Kevin

I mentioned in a previous post last year that I would post some pics of my new aquisitions of my hybrid show Irises and this year they were very prolific. Starting about the last week in March (way early because of a mild Winter) I started going out every day to see which ones were blooming. Some were breathtaking and I took photos almost every day. I still have a few stragglers blooming but for the most part the season has ended. Although I lost some of the name tags in the process, I will eventually identify all of them. This collection represents about $300 to $400 on the open market just for a 2" to 3" piece of the root! Here is the 2012 Review.

The 2nd pic is my 2013 wish list whenever I get rich and famous and can afford them.

View the full sized pic to really appreciate.

Wow - you've got quite a collection! They're gorgeous.

Thanks. We have really enjoyed watching them bloom. I was getting up every morning all excited. I pour myself some coffee and go out to see what was new.

I had to move all my old ones to the new bed because of the growth of a couple of trees over the last few years. There was less and less sun on them and they started to get stunted. Only a few of them would bloom. Can't wait until next year when they all bloom!

WOW! those are rockin'!

My pleasure. Glad you liked them.

These are all beautiful to say the least Drac. You apparently have the thumb of green.

Paynekj,
I especially loved the first of the two photos you posted.

And Draconian,
What a fantastic collection, with great photos of them as well. Must be a lot of work, but I'm sure very enjoyable and well worth it.

I love bearded Iris! We have some that are somewhat similar to the one labeled unknown, plus some blue purple ones. Ours are donations from friends, and we have had to pass some on to others...they keep filling up the beds and then when they are so crowded they don't have as nice a blooming season.