SPEC-Species iris in the garden

Greetings,

I would like to say a little something about species irises in the garden.
Now, nobody loves species irises better than I. They are splendid and
infinitely interesting and I like to grow them and pass them to people as
encouragement to know them and so forth.  But you don't get guarantees with
them, even the natives. Species in situ have natural pests and predators and
Mother Nature has many agendas.

Iris cristata is endemic to the wild areas around Richmond and it is often
recommended for garden culture in our area because of this. I recently had to
do a Terraclor drench on a specimen of cristata in my yard which was being
attacked by southern blight, a disease caused by a soil borne microorganism,
the native species Sclerotium rolfsii. The plant  was a bit rundown anyway
because the neighborhood 'possum, a native species, keeps walking on it on
its way to the birdbath. But the fault this time was probably mine. We are in
a severe drought and I put on the sprinkler. I have fought this fungus
problem, and the native species slugs, which relish cristatas, several times
before during rainy summers. Mother Nature has quite a few more cristatas
than I, here and there, and she didn't show any interest in saving mine, even
though I was watering to save her native fifty foot magnolia tree.
Perversely, she was on the side of the native fungus. She is, from time to
time.

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