Re: CULT: Freeze Damage
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: CULT: Freeze Damage
- From: A* K* <K*@dordt.edu>
- Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 09:49:42 -0600 (MDT)
Freeze damage can do all sorts of kooky and crazy things to the iris,
as we certainly discovered last year. Short stalks, curved and
twisted stalks, distorted flowers with too many or not enough falls
or standards, very small flowers, or as in most cases no flower
stalks at all. It can also so damage the tender spring growth that
that growth turns to brown mush, and if you don't get at it and cut
if off right away you wind up with a rotten rhizome besides. Very
sad and distressing, and fortunately not a problem this year.
I've also noticed color distortion because of freeze, at least I can
find no other cause for it. Different colored blooms on the same
plant, even on the same stalk, with half a petal of a dark color and
the other half light, etc. I wondered if I had a mutation and
carefully marked those stalks, later cut out those rhizomes and
planted them in another place. No such luck. The next year they
were all back to their normal color. It does make me wonder, though,
in all the discussion we've had of late about reversion, if ex treme
weather might not cause a massive change for one year. In that case
I would like to know what those flowers were like the following year.
In NW Iowa, where spring has finally sprung, but it will be quite a
while before even the earliest iris bloom.
Arnold Koekkoek
Arnold Koekkoek Home Ph. (712) 722-0724
Assoc. Prof. of History Off. Ph. (712) 722-6326
Dordt College e-mail koekkoek@dordt.edu
Sioux Center, IA 51250
