I grow only the white form, and I have had it for twenty years in a large--22" diameter--shallow pot. I put it in the pot initially to help protect it from slugs. Once upon a time I had slugs in this garden to a degree quite unimaginable. As it turned out my neighbor had determined to eradicate them in her garden and was baiting with something which summoned them from miles around. My garden suited them well, so some moved in. It was grotesque. Henry now patrols nocturnally with a flashlight and a bamboo skewer and the problem is much abated, but I do put a few slug granules on the ground around the cristata pot-- Sluggo, not the evil stuff. My neighbor got a native turtle to eat her slugs, and she calls him Fred. I gave Fred a strawberry plant for Easter.
But I digress.
The cristata pot sits in a sunny location and is watered when the rest of the potted plants are watered in the summer, meaning when I turn on the oscillating sprinkler in very hot or dry weather or when the birds ask me to do so. Here we see considerable heat from Mid June to Mid August with temperatures in the 90sF not unusual, and the garden is on the bright north side of the house. In the autumn, I put a spade full of my homemade compost on the pot, and sometimes some composted manure, this after everything is clearly gone dormant. In the spring, I trim off any overhanging rhizomes which do not emerge from dormancy, and give it a gallon of soluble commercial fertilizer, just the routine balanced stuff. After, bloom I cut off superfluous rhizomes --immediately after bloom-- and pot them up to being along to give to friends. Occasionally I have seed pods form on the irises, but something !
eats them before harvest and I cannot determine what it is. This, I suggest, is not an ideal sort of way to grow cristata, but it has worked for a long time. At the local botgarden--as I recall-- they grow or have grown in it bright sun on a slope with some protection provided by--as I recall--bronze fennel or something of that sort--tall, open, feathery.
I feel I should do something about this pot of cristatas, but they seem perfectly happy. Of course, if they were unfettered they'd probably have covered quite and area by now. They bloom betimes in the first week of May, and in some years they bloom with the I. tectorum--white form only here--which is a nice sort of thing when it occurs. Most it is not quite simultaneously.
Cordially,
AMW
Richmond VA USA, USDA z7b Urban
----Original Message-----
From: 'J. Agoston' agoston.janos123@gmail.com [iris-species] <iris-species@yahoogroups.com>
To: iris-species <iris-species@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, May 19, 2014 6:35 am
Subject: [iris-species] Iris cristata culture
Dear All,
Can someone give me some details how to grow or how NOT-to-grow Iris cristata? I have lost one plant 5 years ago, so I'd like to do a better job this time.
Thx!
Janos
Z5a, Hungary (semia-arid desert like part)
