Re: HYB:CULT:Update

So good to hear it isn't a total wipeout for you, Betty.
Still too early to tell how much damage here. I am <so> glad I didn't fertilize last fall (too hot and dry till way too late last year) and never do until late April (to avoid too much lush growth while we can still get freezes), or am sure it would be worse.
After being nearly a foot below normal rainfall, we finally got an inch of rain immediately before the blast of cold, then another inch and a half yesterday and warm temperatures. It will take another few days of sunshine to see how extensive the damage was.
The few rows of seedlings I covered look a lot better than the ones I yanked out of the ground and put in the kitchen in plastic grocery bags! But it looks like they will all be ok, & may bloom - will be surprised if they have any kind of fertility, but will try <g>.
The uncovered rows are another story! As are the majority of pots I left outdoors -new purchases and some good sized seedlings left from last year that I figured could use some freeze tolerance evaluation. Yuch!
As Betty says, it's hit and miss. Even within individual clumps - for whatever reason, some fans in a lot of clumps were <much> more susceptible to damage. Many clumps with only two or three fans injured, but those are so badly damaged, they have fallen and are already bleached white. I fear they are the fans that were trying to send up bloomstalks....
Someone has already said this, but I think it bears repeating - freeze damage often looks identical to scorch damage, but the latter is contagious, the former isn't, although it can lead to massive rot outbreaks. Take it from the frost pocket gardener, crowned the Rot Queen by this group, abdicated several years ago via breeding more freeze/rot resistant irises. 
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
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