Dwarf Iris Society

DIS Symposium

The DIS symposium (or popularity poll) gives all members of the society the opportunity to vote for their favorite MDB irises.

The DIS symposium is conducted on a 2-year cycle, with ballots for 2020-2021 being distributed in the 2020 Portfolio. In a departure from previous common practice, participants were asked to rate each iris they were familiar with on a scale of 1 to 5, rather than simply vote for their favorites. We also made every effort to list all cultivars currently being grown, rather than limiting the list to those appearing in previous symposia. The goal of these changes was capture our members’ assessments of all cultivars, whether good or bad, whether new or old. Whereas simply voting for favorites tends to reward varieties that are widely grown, the rating system should highlight good irises, even if grown by just a few of us. We have only listed MDB cultivars that were rated by at 3 or more respondents.

The dwarf species (Iris pumila cultivars) symposium results follow the MDB results, below.

Results for reticulata irises and arilbred dwarfs are presented on their own web pages.

Click on the name of an iris to view its page in the AIS Iris Encyclopedia.

2020-2021 Symposium Results

MDBs rated "best" (4.5 to 5)

rank	cultivar	number of ratings	average rating
1	Daisy Fresh (Willott, 1988)	3	5.0
1	Footlights (Hager, 1980)	3	5.0
3	Bugsy (Hager, 1993)	4	4.8
3	Dragon Flamedart (Moran, 2011)	4	4.8
5	Forever Violet (Chapman, 2002)	3	4.7
5	Hobbit (Miller, 2004)	3	4.7
5	Pirate's Apprentice (Hager, 2003)	3	4.7
5	Ticklish Tyke (Rieniets, 2020)	3	4.7
5	Two Cream Tea (Rieniets, 2018)	3	4.7
10	Fission Chips (Keppel, 2004)	5	4.6
11	Beetlejuice (Black, 2013)	7	4.6
12	Doozey (Hager, 1994)	4	4.5
12	Howesie (Burton, 2005)	4	4.5
12	India Ink (Spoon, 2010)	4	4.5
12	Little Drummer Boy (Willott, 1997)	4	4.5
12	Spiderweb (Spoon, 2003)	4	4.5
12	Tooth Fairy (Jones, 1992)	4	4.5

MDBs rated "good" (3.5 to 4.4)

rank	cultivar	number of ratings	average rating
18	Alpine Lake (Willott, 1980)	5	4.4
18	Elfin Magic (Willott, 1990)	5	4.4
20	African Wine (Kasperek, 1999)	3	4.3
20	Alpine Aestival (Rieniets, 2018)	3	4.3
20	Bee Wings (Brown, 1960)	3	4.3
20	Buckle Bunny (Rieniets, 2016)	3	4.3
20	Chemistry (Black, 2003)	3	4.3
20	Creme Cups (Rieniets, 2019)	3	4.3
20	Icon (Keppel, 2008)	6	4.3
20	Sparkletts (Black, 1998)	3	4.3
20	Spring Beacon (Spoon, 2005)	3	4.3
20	Star Caper (Willott, 1981)	3	4.3
20	Tingle (Black, 2000)	3	4.3
20	Tiny Titan (Aitken, 2002)	3	4.3
20	Velvet Promise (Rieniets, 2020)	3	4.3
20	White Ice (Spoon, 2015)	3	4.3
20	Zheng Elf (Moran, 2020)	3	4.3
35	Jiffy (Hager, 1995)	4	4.3
35	Red at Last (Mahood, 1969)	4	4.3
35	Robin's Egg (Sindt, 1993)	4	4.3
35	Trimmed Velvet (Spoon, 2006)	4	4.3
39	Butter Ball (Zickler, 1956)	3	4.0
39	Early Sunshine (Grapes, 1955)	4	4.0
39	Hot Babe (Spoon, 2004)	4	4.0
39	Lamsey Love (Rieniets, 2019)	3	4.0
39	Lemon Puff (Dunbar, 1969)	3	4.0
39	Petaloso (Rieniets, 2019)	3	4.0
39	Rivulet (Keppel, 2012)	3	4.0
39	Sapphire Jubilee (Spoon, 2013)	4	4.0
39	Self Evident (Hager, 1997)	3	4.0
39	Small Blessings (Willott, 1999)	3	4.0
39	Small Token (Miller, 2014)	3	4.0
39	Snowy River (Willott, 1985)	3	4.0
39	Spot of Tea (Black, 1988)	4	4.0
39	Steppe (Burton, 2010)	3	4.0
39	Stripe Three (Black, 2007)	3	4.0
54	Black Olive (Black, 2013)	4	3.8
54	Extra (Palmer, 1989)	4	3.8
54	Hilda's Gift (Spoon, 2002)	4	3.8
54	Lotta Dotta (Spoon, 2011)	4	3.8
54	Storm Compass (Chancellor-Rust/Rust, 2014)	4	3.8
59	Buddha Song (Dunbar, 1970)	7	3.7
59	Ditto (Hager, 1982)	7	3.7
61	Atroviolacea (Todaro, 1856)	6	3.7
61	Aurora Sea (Ritchie, 1998)	3	3.7
61	Garnet Elf (Hamblen, 1977)	3	3.7
61	Kitema (Rieniets, 2019)	3	3.7
61	Libation (Hager, 1975)	3	3.7
61	Millennium Bug (Willott, 1999)	3	3.7
61	Pixie Pirate (Willott, 1997)	3	3.7
61	Rosa Brooks (Burton, 2010)	3	3.7
61	Royal Maroon (Spoon, 2001)	3	3.7
61	Wee Dragons (Miller, 2017)	3	3.7
71	Hey There (Lankow, 1992)	5	3.6
72	Kayla's Song (Spoon, 2009)	8	3.5
72	Pearly Whites (Black, 2014)	4	3.5
72	Pixie Kisses (Willott, 1999)	4	3.5

MDBs rated "average" or "poor" (1.5 to 3.4)

rank	cultivar	number of ratings	average rating
75	Pixie Flirt (Willott, 1989)	7	3.4
76	Blue Doll (Warburton, 1958)	5	3.4
77	Keep Off (Black, 2012)	3	3.3
77	Miniseries (Keppel, 2011)	3	3.3
77	Strawberry Cream (Boushay, 1989)	3	3.3
80	Blue Wind (Spence, 1982)	4	3.0
80	Bright White (Welch, 1958)	5	3.0
80	Oh Grow Up (Miller, 2018)	3	3.0
80	Pussycat (Schmelzer, 1967)	3	3.0
84	Doodle (Hager, 1982)	3	2.7
84	Mini Stitch (Sutton, 2016)	3	2.7
86	Elf Esteem (Black, 2015)	3	2.3
87	Pokemon (Sutton, 2003)	5	1.8

 

2020-2021 Dwarf Species Symposium

Since only one cultivar received 3 or more ratings, all responses are reported. All listed here are cultivars of Iris pumila.

rank	cultivar	number of ratings	average rating
1	Crouching Tiger (Tankesley-Clarke, 2003)	1	5.0
2	Hidden Dragon (Tankesley-Clarke, 2003)	2	4.5
2	Lesser Goldfinch (Baumunk, 2003)	2	4.5
4	Keystone Oracle (Jesberger, 2011)	1	4.0
4	Sudden Butterflies (Jensen, R. 2010)	2	4.0
6	Wild Whispers (Coleman, 2012)	4	2.8

2017 Symposium Results

rank	cultivar	votes
1	Beetlejuice (Black, 2013)	10
1	Keeno (Johnson, 2009)	10
3	Icon (Keppel, 2008)	9
4	Tiny Titan (Aitken, 2002)	9

Results continue below photos...