Re: rot and borer resistant iris: a myth?

Nell -- consider the Historic Iris mentioned in an earlier posting.  Some from 
1813 (certainly predates 1950's) must have some hardiness and resistance.
I have some un-named sentimental oldies which seem resistant to borer and rot.
They are, however, isolated from my named varieties.  And there are folks
whose gardens seem to be immune.  Good cultural practises seem to reduce rot
to nill and borer to "I don't bother".  And then there are folks who have
to give up on iris because they have too much of both.
Hemerocallis breeders from the South don't care about hardiness.  Their excess
seedlings are sold to highway beautification folks and the prices at intro=
duction are $150 to $300 a fan.  Their adoring public is in the south (that's
south of the Mason Dixon as a direction, and probably as a climate, too)
Iris are practically free compared to that.
How about starting a breeding program with hardy historics as your base?  How
about looking at the breeding that is in the cultivars that are Duykes
winners and other winners and see what is in their parentage and figure out
whether hardiness and resistance to rot is a factor?
What do you do to your soil other than not use chemicals?  What are your
cultural practises that rot and borer is such a devistating problem??
Carolyn Schaffner
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index