Re: winter potting

HI Joe,

I was just talking to Frances Rogers about this type of thing.  His comment
was that you would be selling the increases for next to nothing unless you
increase the price relative to the number of increases.

Char, New Berlin, WI
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Mullins" <joevlad@yahoo.com>
To: "iris" <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 10:38 AM
Subject: [iris] winter potting


> Arnold, I am about 130 miles I believe from the
> canadian border in the Red River Valley (border of
> North Dakota and Minnesota).
>
> We are in an interesting location.  The winters are
> quite cold (-40 degrees on many occasions in january).
>  Also extremely windy.  -60 to -80 degree windchill at
> times.  Wind is always blowing quite strong.  So
> strong, that our 40 80 foot long beds have little
> snowcover no matter the snowfall.  This makes us cover
> all 90,000 plants or so with flax straw which is
> absolutely perfect for covering iris in the winter.
>
> Being in the valley, the cold central canadian weather
> goes right down the valley to hit us.  So, just 30
> miles east and west of us are 5 degree to 10 degree
> difference in temperatures oftentimes.
>
> Our soil is heavy red river clay gumbo we like to call
> it.  it becomes literally concrete if left alone and
> can be mistaken for a rock.  Water just pools on it
> and promotes rot.
>
> However, we have a fairly good growing season, as the
> warmer South Dakota weather comes up the valley and
> our flowering crabapple trees easily bloom 2 weeks
> before people 30-40 miles east or west of us.
>
> So, that is our climate, only plants that can survive
> zone 2 or 3 winters make it here.  Zone 4 fruit trees,
> etc.  don't at all.
>
> This is where I'd like to figure a way to winter over
> 2-3,000 6 inch pots of iris.
>
> I have thought about making a giant sandbox and
> planting the pots in the sand to the rim and covering
> everything with flax.
>
> The reason for the pots if you're wondering is the
> large amount people wanting plants immediately and to
> bring the pots to seminars and things in the spring we
> attend and have tables.
>
> Any ideas or experiences trying this are appreciated,
>
> Joe
>
>
>
> _______________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now.
> http://promotions.yahoo.com/goldrush
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
> message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index