Re: How Much Cold

> Complicated indeed, Amy.  Sounds like good gardening to me!! When you add
> manure, does the heat plus the nitrogen content contribute to burning of the
> plants?  Any organic stuff is what's desperately needed fer sher.  

No, it doesn't, unless you added a ton of unaged manure, and even then
the decomp is so rapid that I rarely see burn.

> Sounds like more thank a struggle.... a mission!! Do you get to commiserate
> with other Iris growers there?  How long have you been trying to get this 
> soil to behave itself?  What's your best success story?

Actually, because of the dry nature of the place, TBIs do marvellously
well, provided they get enough drainage and a little bit of summer shade
(but not mulch) to keep them from "cooking" like they do in NM.  We
are blessed with many shade trees here in Austin, many deciduous, which
are perfect for our needs.  Any of the water-loving iris, like the
Louisiana / Japanese / etc. do NOT do well here except in East Texas
(near, of course, LA).  They need too much water and acidic soil; our
soil is very alkaline.  These plants are grown as semi-aquatic plants
here.  I haven't messed with them, only reticulatas and TBIs.

A very strange sight here in Central Texas:  amaryllis have rebloomed
or late bloomed and they are interplanted with TBIs in one yard.
Quite a strange sight to see 'Red Lion' amaryllis blooming with
pale blue TBIs....

> What cultivars are most successful for yu?  Do you specialize?  You might
> have told me(us) but I don't have my notebook handy (G) 

Oh, I am a rank beginner :-) as far as Iris go anyhow, though I have
known for years that we have a decent TBI climate around here.  So
far this spring I have blooming:

Living Legacy (NOT Secret Melody as I said previously; they
	are similar pattern-wise but I got out the catalogs in
	good light and I believe it to be Living Legacy)
Well Endowed (HUGE yellow self)
A violet-red with skinny top (standards) and orange-red beards;
patterning towards the centre of the flower.  Haven't ID'd it yet,
though I have tried
Just this morning:  a neglecta? top rich blue, bottom rich purple.
Will try to ID later...

I am concerned about the violet-red one... the flowers are disfigured
a bit as if they were eaten in the bud; one bud is completely shrivelled
and dry.  I don't think it's lack of water because the foliage is
fine as are the others in the bed.  Any thoughts?

-- 
Amy Moseley Rupp
amyr@mpd.tandem.com, Austin, TX, zone 8b
Jill O. *Trades
Mistress O. {}
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