[iris] HYB: Dormancy (or lack of it)

I've cross-posted this (to Iris-Photos and Iris-Talk) 
so if you want you can see a picture of the
differences in dormancy that I'm talking about. The
image is a little bigger than standard (it's 103 kb)
-- and I hope it doesn't bog down anyone's computer.
Anyway... I've just been noticing the extreme
difference in growth habits regarding dormancy, that
irises can have here (in zone 7, Maryland). We have
had a few brief, fairly-cold periods, but overall the
weather's been much warmer than is typical for our
winters here. 
The cold blasts haven't stopped diploid KUPARI, and
the modern tetraploid TB's I have, from continuing to
grow new foliage. On the other hand, the warm weather
hasn't stopped Iris aphylla clones, and most of my
diploid MTB's from retreating below ground either.
In the picture, you can see how the continuing growth
of KUPARI has been inherited by its seedlings [CLOWN
PANTS X KUPARI] while other sort of analogous crosses,
[CLOWN PANTS X pallida Latil] and [CLOWN PANTS X
KEIRITH], aren't showing hardly any green above
ground.
On the other side of the house there is a KUPARI
seedling (from X CONSUMMATION) that is growing among a
crowded bed non-KUPARI seedlings. It is standing green
above all its brown neighbors -- which happen to be
[Iris cengialtii X CLOWN PANTS] seedlings.
What I'm wondering is... would this lack of winter
dormancy pose a problem for irises when they are grown
up North? 
I would have also asked if there was a connection
between winter non-dormancy and rebloom, but I think I
might already know an answer to that question.
Contrary to what I would have guessed, four of the
now-mostly-brown [Iris cengialtii X CLOWN PANTS]
seedlings were my only diploid rebloomers this year.

Tom
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/pjpeg which had a name of 
dormancy.jpg]

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index