CULT: losses and successes {and AIS}

"Neil A Mogensen" <neilm@charter.net> wrote:

>>> After my few years of struggle to keep bearded irises going here in the Asheville area, I am about to 
throw in the sponge and work with Siberians.They, at least, love the area.  Beardeds, of all sizes, don't.<<<
 
Neil, altho' our USDA zones are far apart, some of the above sounds very familiar. However, I have 
consistently had  very best luck with MTBs, diploid and tets. I have started actually losing some 
dwarfs (SDB and MTB) the past few years. Never happened before. 
 
Siberians are very forgiving in almost every climate as long as they get enough moisture.(some in
CA are able to grow some and the SSI has life members in SC,etc.)  
 
Linda mentioned Walter Moore's wonderful bearded cultivars. I grow or have grown at least 10 of Walta's 
TBs and they have done great. I am of the (old?) school that the amount of moisture can outweigh other factors 
and Walta receives ample rainfall.
 
*I receive this list in Digest form and sometimes skim through the posts. I didn't see (altho' it might have
been on list) any mention of Don Spoon's comments that appeared on p. 23 in the July AIS Bulletin. 
 
Don said, in part: "To win major awards a cultivar should grow and produce stalks characteristic of the 
cultivars in (USDA) Zones 5, 6 and 7 as well as 8 and 9. It might be useful to alter the method of counting
the votes for major awards (AM an above) and require a set percentage, such as 25% , from judges who
grow and appraise irises in colder zones 5, 6 and 7. Obviously, it is counterproductive for the American
Iris Society to award major awards to tender cultivars and thus authorize their sale to the general gardening
community."
 
(I am an AIS garden judge and I live in USDA Zone 3 and grow many classes of irises and,yes, 
TBs do bloom in New Hampshire and I informed Don of that. Apart from our abbreviated growing
season, with our consistent snow cover, we are usually spared the freeze, thaw of Zones 4 - 7) 
except for this year. :-)
 
Ellen Gallagher
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




Ellen Gallagher / ellengalla@yahoo.com / Editor, The Siberian Iris 
Berlin, New Hampshire - USDA Zone 3 
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