Re: Fulva

At 12:07 AM 1/7/2004, you wrote:
True to pattern, my garden is a week to 10 days behind Dennis in Cincinatti, about 200 miles south, but 2000 feet altitude.
 
I do not have a stream or pond on site, and this one is in an especially dry spot.
 

Good photo!  You are lucky to get fulva to bloom in a dry spot.  After growing LAs for about 6 years now, I'm really starting to come to grips with the fact that they NEED a pond.  Now some of them have died off when submerged completely.  I don't know if that's coincidence or a direct result of "drowning".  But most of the LAs have been growing like gang busters once placed in the pond.

In addition to increased vigor, they are blooming on significantly taller stalks (up to 2x to 3x taller) after being planted in the pond.  My biggest ones have stalks approaching 5 feet tall.  And finally the best bit of good news is that the LAs growing in my pond *NEVER* have to be weeded.  The bog beds I dug a few years ago have become a minor disaster.  The weeds are fond of the extra moisture available there and have turned into major thugs.  I can't keep up with the maintenance and the irises have actually diminished from the competition.  Some have died out completely.

To me it seems a "no-brainer" that the bogs need to reverted back to lawn, and all the irises get transplanted into the pond where they can thrive without any care whatsoever.  I plan to start this activity as soon as they are done blooming.

I tried planting a variety or irises near the downspout of my house, using a thick gravel mulch as cover.  I thought the Louisianas and versicolors would thrive there but exactly the opposite has been true... the Arils & arilbreds are the ones thriving there instead.  These LAs will also get transplanted to the pond.

Dennis in Cincinnati

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