Re: unexpected survivors

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Dear Laurie; When one considers the tremendous variety of species within the genus iris it seems to me that someone in zone 3 should assume that most would be hardy. The list of those that you could not grow because of the cold is actually very small and my inclination would be that a new variety or species should be assumed cold hardy until proven otherwise. Off hand i can only think of about 20 of the 250+ species that would not make it in your garden.

lfandjg <laurief@paulbunyan.net> wrote:

Hello All,

To my surprise and delight, both I. tridentata and 'Berlin Chrytosa'
survived their first winter here in zone 3b, northern MN.  The
beardless are just starting to awaken in my garden, with the
versicolors leading the beardless pack.  Sibs are still mostly
dormant. I really didn't expect tridentata to survive here, but we did
have decent snowfall this winter for the first time in 3 yrs. I also
wasn't expecting to see 'Berlin Chrytosa' this spring since I wasn't
successful at keeping either I. chrysographes or I. setosa canadensis
alive. I don't have any problem, however, with I. setosa interior
(that's the Alaskan one, right?).

I love this time of year when I can start identifying and evaluating
survivors.  This is almost as good as bloom!

Laurie
zone 3b, northern MN