Re: Re: ORMOHR now iris and oaks

Neil,
 
>I'm opening up a space where I can control the summer rain (under the eaves) but >not the roots from the neighbor's oaks.
 
I love my oak trees even better than the iris.  The iris and oaks seem to co-exist with each other quite well.  In our area it's common to see iris used as a base planting around large oak trees.  Joe Spear's home in Argyle, Texas has iris planted all under the oaks.  When I can get the leaves ground up and worked in as a soil amendment I can see a definite bounce in iris planted there.  Many of my iris are planted close enough that the oak root system is a factor in those iris beds.  I can't see the oaks limit the growth ability in those compared to those planted well away from oaks.  Here the oak shade becomes welcome beginning in July.  Iris that get that shade stay healthier through our killer summers than those that have to cope in full sun.  There is a couple of liabilities as well, of course.  One is that bloom stalks putting out late enough to do most of their growing in the leafed out shade are not as strong as those grown in full sun and have more tendency to flop.  It also seems that on some iris, but not all of them, being grown in shade reduces the number of bloom stalks in a clump.  I'm not entirely sure about this latter.  There might be another cause.  Some bloom quite heavily every year grown in shade.  It may be quirk of different cultivars whether the shade reduces bloom or not.  In the iris grown in my area, I can think of as many being grown under oak trees as in more exposed areas.  While many of those are older varieties (and not just the really old ones), a few have modern form and seem to do equally as well.  Oak trees tend to not have as invasive root systems as some other trees.  Most of those in this area are post oaks and are native if that makes a difference.  By accident, the soil amended naturally by oak leaves that caught between the cracks on the limestone ledge cropping out at the top of the hill turned out to be soil some ABs liked better than anything I've been able to amend.
 
Donald Eaves
d*@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA - who was planting acorns in his late 40's and early 50's.  Surely an act of optimism by someone who doesn't really consider himself an optimist by nature. 
 

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