Re: Frost/freeze tolerance

In a message dated 4/9/2007 3:33:59 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
pharcher@mindspring.com writes:

<<We dedicated growers are already going out to the garden to  observe the 
damage.  It might simply a matter of writing down the  details.>>
 
Paul, 
 
I agree that such a list would be helpful.  I would also agree for you  to 
compile the list.  <big grin>
 
My stats:
 
Length of freeze. . .5 nights/days.  
 
Lowest temperatures . . . 23 and another 24, back to back and in the  middle. 
 
 
Tonight should be the last night and is unknown but will be below  freezing.  
My beds are in a wide open space with no trees or  shade from buildings.  The 
garden in on the crest of a creek bank, with  howling winds.  Ideal at times, 
but exposes plant tissue to brutal  cold at times like these.  
 
I can not determine damage immediately.  
 
Some of the stalks will have melted and fallen over.  These are  easy.  
 
Past experience with frozen stalks tells me that stalks can look fine upon  
examination, but exhibit a multitude of problems as the season advances.   
Extreme situation for these seemingly unaffected stalks being empty or blasted  
spaths.  No buds.  Other, less dramatic results are variable and  include lack 
of pollen.  This is still freeze damage.  
 
How can one look at a clump of irises and determine, visually, if the  stalks 
were zapped before they ever emerged above the foliage?  Careful  observation 
as time passes can determine fans, containing stalks, which have  rotted off 
at the rhizome.  This is one way to determine rebloom in a  cultivar that was 
not able to extend early in the fall.  With luck they  will simply peel off 
during some later clean up without rot.  
 
Not counting seedlings, I grow approximately 600 cultivars.  Give or  take a 
hundred or so.  Many in multiple spots.  I would need to know  which varieties 
were showing stalks at the time of the freeze.  Then I  would need to know if 
they continued to grow or simply rotted in place.   Will the cultivar put up 
later stalks?  Some do in normal seasons while  some never do.  
 
If an established clump wasn't showing stalks before the freeze, but  doesn't 
bloom, can one say that it was frozen out?  Or did it just decide  to take a 
year off?  
 
Glancing across the garden, the day before the first night of the freeze, I  
would have said about 50% of my irises were already showing stalks.  I was  on 
a fast track to an accelerated season where most everything bloomed  
together.  
 
I visualize a master list with boxes to check.  
 
I've lost bloom stalks before but not on this scale.  I've never lost  
freshly germinated seedlings before.  
 

________________________________________________________
Betty W.  in South-central KY Zone 6 ---If you don't cross them, you can't 
plant them!  
Bridge In Time Iris Garden@website:
Where the seeds are in the pots once  again! 
_www.thegardensite.com/irises/bridgeintime/_ 
(http://www.thegardensite.com/irises/bridgeintime/) 
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