The show photos are here (the first yellow pseudata appears to be fertile, for those that don't know, that's a breakthrough for the once sterile pseudatas) and the photos from Ensata Gardens are here. There are far too many maiden pseudata seedlings to post here, in the Ensata gallery.

Lastly, this is 'Take no Sato' the last of my pseudatas to bloom this year. I'm hoping to have a few JI photos to post, too, but it would seem Japanese beetles like to destroy Japanese Iris! The JI 'Love Goddess' has taken on a whole new meaning now that I've found them on it "in pairs"!

Shadow

The photos of the gardens will keep me entertained for hours. At first, I went head over heels for Christina's Sister. What a flamboyant bloom! And your clump shot of John's Fancy is breathtaking- it looks like a flock of birds in flight. But then I looked again and saw Yae-Gosan, and I have to say that is one of the most delicate and lovely flowers I have ever seen. I rank it right up there with Eden rose.

The show photos surprised me. I was amazed at the size of these blooms: I had no idea how big they were! I guess I thought they were the size of my yellow flag iris or maybe the size of a dietes lily. Photos of flowers usually don't give you any idea of scale.

Your picture of Lake Effect really surprised me because I don't generally go for colors that might look gray in the garden, but that flower is magnificent. I guess the size was part of it.

Thanks, Renee

Any of those Greywoods can come live with me! Thank you Brock.

Renee,

There's going to be an auction/potluck at Ensata and John Coble asked me to send him a list of my favorites so that he could try and include them in the auction. All you mentioned but LE were on my list, though I've always liked it, too (it's more blue and white in person).

They can be large. 'Bellender Blues' was chest high and the white Copeland seedling (at the show) was at least 8" across!

BTW, these JIs have opened since my last message:

'Edged Delight' (4 stalks after a late transplant last fall)

'Twilight Burst' (hoping to get a better photo, but it was opening in the foliage (and sun) and I had to leave at the time)

'Rosewater' (one of my favorite JIs of all time)

'Edged Delight' (again)

and the two together

'Twilight Burst' opened and closed it's other bloom before I could get back to the garden, so I guess the lousy photo I posted earlier is it for this season. The bloom season is almost over, the digging season is still going in full swing.

My mother and I have passed the 1,000 division mark on the NOIDs now and I still have more to transplant. Then there's the club dig for our sale and the orders are supposed to be showing up soon...

Oh, those deptford pinks just keep going, too.

Make sure to keep up with the stretching, yoga, or tai-chi to reduce the strain on the poor joints. That's a lot of digging.
Renee