Re: Hardiness of Species Irises

Hi Rodney,
I tried to include hardiness information in the beginner's guide I 
edited for SIGNA. (An Introductory Guide to Species Iris and SIGNA, such 
a deal at $5!) I found it very hard to compile reliable information, and 
therefore the hardiness info presented there is spotty; I used multiple 
sources but probably still erred in places. The references I used most 
were: Mathew, Bill Shear's book The Gardener's Iris Book, and The World 
of Iris by Warburton & Hamblen et al. Iris of China, by Waddick & Zhao, 
was good too. In many cases I just had to take a guess based on the 
native range. Christy's brief list shows what I think is true: most are 
pretty hardy, to USDA -20F/-26C, at least. The ones that aren't are 
pretty well known, I think. The one that stands out in my memory as 
being the biggest puzzle is I. tectorum, which is hardy in some very 
cold places but does not survive in some much milder regions. Snow cover 
and number of sunny days in winter were both kicked around in this list 
as possible explanations but no consensus was ever reached.
So: it might be easier to say all irises can be expected to be hardy to 
minus 20 F, and then list the exceptions.
Ken

rbartontx wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> We've had a request for an article for SIGNA about the hardiness of 
> various species. I'd welcome some discussion here to form the basis 
> for that.
>
> Rodney
>
> 



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