Seriously though, they grow them large scale for their club sale and for research. I'm told, John was just awarded a grant by the AIS for research in chemical weed control. You'll see why when you try to find the weeds in some of these photos.

I'll post a few favorites here, but the rest can be seen here.

'Island Sunset'

'Hombre' (one of the neatest iris I've seen in a long time)

'Desert Echo'

'Born To Shine' (was neon in person - first year plants - find the weeds!)

'Starlight Sonata' (I received my start of this from the Kaufmann's and mine took this year off)

'Glory Of Dawn' (first time I'd seen it in person and, Mike, all I can say is Wow!)

'Midnight Vigil' (more first year plants)

'Sultry Mood'

'Starburst'

'Cabernet'

The Kaufmanns really have some beautiful irises. Are they down your way? I sure am glad I ordered Glory of Dawn this year.

Thanks for posting these pictures.

Shadow

I was really impressed with those clump shots of Born to Shine, though. Now that's color! The Thornbird clump surprised me, because I usually don't care for really subtle irises, and I really liked it.

Thanks for the slide show. Now I just have to figure out which rose to tear out...

Renee

Now Renee, no tearing out of roses. Just do what I am doing, which is build a new garden bed smack dab in the middle of the lawn for my iris garden.

Shadow,

That is sand, but I didn't have much time to discuss their growing techniques (threat of rain), so I don't know if it's their native soil or if they used it as a topdressing.

Again, we didn't have much time to discuss it, but I believe their secret for the weeds/bed preparation is to put down roundup, till the soil once everything's dead, then use a pre-emergent afterward.

I haven't mentioned it here, because I didn't know if I'd get in trouble (I guess I'm about to find out), but (if you didn't see the article in the regional newsletter) we have a region 6 (OH, IN, & MI) forum now. There's a small downloadable pdf John put together on herbicides in those forums. They haven't caught on yet and are still really slow, but anyone in the region is welcome to join.

The Kaufmann's are about 10 minutes from the Hollingworth's, so East Lansing area. I've been invited to visit anytime, so I hope to head back next year and see how things look at two years. I'll be in Chelsea by then, so they'll be even closer.

Pat

If you don't mind email me who you ordered it from Shadow.

My email on my web page, link below.

Now that planting and weeding done maybe I can soon update with 2009 re-select seedlings. A few very nice ones.

Mike G