Growing Season

Carolyn Schaffner writes:

>>	AAAHHH, Sharon!  Your location explains a lot.  How long is your growing
season?  

It varies a lot from year to year, and also depends on what you're growing.  In
terms of iris, the reticulata usually start blooming at the end of January.
I've had onco bloom in late February,  but aril and arilbredmedian bloom usually
doesn't start until the middle of March.  The average date of the last killing
frost is the first of April, but the local folklore is that you don't put out
tender things like tomato plants until the mesquite have leaved out.  The local
iris show is usually scheduled  the first weekend after the 20th of April, to
coincide with peak TB bloom in the valley, but  I rarely have anything left of
show quality.

I'll have some sporadic bloom into early May, but by June the termperature is
getting to be over 100 and the  iris will have started to go dormant.  TBs get
shade cloth as soon as bloom season is over but (except for the youngest
seedlings) the arilbreds are left  to fend for themselves.  

Temperatures cool off a bit when the "rainy season" hits (half of our average 8"
annual rainfall occurs in July and August).   That ushers in the "real" growing
season:  Johnson grass, careless weed, ragweed, goatheads, etc.  Sometime in
August, the iris will breaking their summer dormancy.  September is the ideal
planting time.  The average date of the first killing frost is supposedly  the
first of November, but some years it doesn't actually arrive until after
Thanksgiving.  There are a lot of microclimates in this area.

Probably more than you really wanted to know . . . .

Sharon McAllister (73372.1745@compurserve.com)
Southern New Mexico
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