Re: SURVIVABILITY- When's Really DEAD?

Barb asked us:

<< This brings me to the question I've been wanting to ask for awhile now. 
 Someone else mentioned that irises lose leaves and sometimes even roots...
 My question I guess would be, how can you  tell when an iris is dead? They
shrunk and looked all sunken-in and  their roots died. But they weren't a
rotten pile of mush. If an iris is dormant, does it stay fat? Also, if they
are just dormant, how should I 
treat them so they'll "come back to life" at some point this Fall?

Barb, it's hard, of course, to tell without looking at something what I--no
expert on the subject, let me assure you-- think might be going on,
especially when our climates are so different, but I will offer a couple of
thoughts and hope someone else will have more insights to offer you.

Sunken in and no roots and no growth during the growing season --assuming I
have heard you correctly--sounds dead to me. Especially if they are not firm.
I'd expect them to be firm if they are healthy. I think there are a lot of
nameless rots out there and I think sometimes the things just die. What I
would do is take a small sharp paring knife to one and cut a thin slice off
and see what you have there. If it doesn't look light and crisp and
incipient, I'd consider it kaput, because if it doesn't seem alive, it
probably isn't. Paul Richardson once spoke of sensing that life had departed.
I found I knew just what he meant when I looked at stuff this spring. If it
is light and firm, I'd leave them alone. Presumptively they know what they
are doing if they have gone dormant for self-protective reasons.

Won't somebody please give Barb some better help than I can??

Anner Whitehead, Richmond, VA USDA  Zone 7
Henry Hall  henryanner@aol.com
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