Las Cruces, NM

[iris lilies]

Those poor gardeners. I'm happy you are getting to meet people you like! I do have an iris question...deer. We've never had them eat the iris, but now all the new growth is nipped off. I cannot think of any other critter that might be doing this! They haven't started on the emerging hostas yet. Crocus were the dessert early this month. But the IRIS????

Deer generally leave Iris alone but I wouldn’t put it past them to eat new tender leaves.

[KayLR]

The casita sounds charming. Would love to see that.

[iris lilies]

Here is the Casita where I stayed. The first photo is rather unremarkable, but there are three small properties behind these doors. The walkthru path has access to two of them and then I had a private door, the one on the left, into my little unit.

2nd photo is tiny private entry.

Last photo is shared patio area.
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[iris lilies]

By the time Saturday rolled around there were many more iris blooms open. The very last garden we saw was definitely worth it with many clumps of iris full open. Here are a couple of photos.6B3D3B65-1F75-41E0-89D9-26216DB98A23.jpg

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[dado potato]

I do have an iris question...deer. We've never had them eat the iris, but now all the new growth is nipped off. I cannot think of any other critter that might be doing this! They haven't started on the emerging hostas yet. Crocus were the dessert early this month. But the IRIS????

Deer and bunnies leave my irises alone. I understand that irises give deer nausea. Is it possible that a naive deer ate an iris and then barfed?

[iris lilies]

Deer and bunnies leave my irises alone. I understand that irises give deer nausea. Is it possible that a naive deer ate an iris and then barfed?

My friends who grow 1,000 iris in deer infested land said deer are now eating their Intermediate Bearded iris. It could be just one deer with a taste for that, but those IB’s do have slightly different parentage backgrounds from the tall bearded iris so they might be more palatable to a particular deer.

Today as I was walking around town I saw a small Aril iris in the barrio in a neglected, scraggly part of a yard. If I had not just endured 3 1/2 hours of training on Arils I would not have recognized it as an Aril, I would’ve just dismissed it as a common purple iris.

[nswef]

Haven't found any deer vomit...but there's a huge field where they seem to live...The hostas, barely showing, have been trimmed.

[nswef]

I'm glad some bloomed! I love that the one set goes with the pottery plate.

[iris lilies]

I'm glad some bloomed! I love that the one set goes with the pottery plate.

The orange one is a stunning new seedling that’s not even on the market yet. It won “Best New Seedling” For a young new hybridizer who lives in Las Cruces. The reddish purple one next to it is also his work. We oldsters in the Iris Society are dying out so it’s very exciting to see someone under 40 years old hybridizing good Iris.

[nswef]

IL, It is wonderful when the younger people start taking over the jobs and even passions of the founders. Many organizations don't have that happening, so I guess they will just die out from lack of interest. Glad that's not so with the Iris.