Re: Louisiana swamps

From: BILLS@hsc.edu (Bill Shear)


>Could they be a mutation of giganticaeruleas?  Or is natural hybrid more
>likely?  They are not first generation hybrids, because the result of I.
>giganticaerulea X I. fulva is a tall wine colored iris.  These are medium
>pink, although appear to be giganticaeruleas in form.  Maybe I will self
>them when they bloom in the garden and see what I get.
>

My guess is that these pinks are some kind of variant of the species
itself, especially if there is no evidence of another species nearby.
Giganticaerulea is known to be variable in color.  The results of selfing
should be quite interesting.  Do you have the Louisiana Iris book?  It may
give more info on variants of Gc (tired of typing the full name!).  My copy
is at home or I would check into this now...

I'm eagerly awaiting a shipment from Lone Star gardens of some of the newer
hybrids.  At least I think I'm waiting for a shipment; evidently they do
not acknowledge orders.

Meanwhile I've been digging in our stiff, sticky red clay to make two new
beds for bearded irises, each about 4X20 ft.  Much organic matter will be
required to get the soil to a usable texture.  Luckily I have two big
compost heaps ready to use, and a pickup load of leafmold on the north side
of the garage.  Together with some lime and rock phosphate this should do
the trick.

However, I'm not going to experiment with "shaving."  My own experience is
that the roots remaining on the rhizome quickly branch out and anchor the
plant and allow for quick establishment (new growth usually begins after
just a week or ten days).  Since we have no nematode problems, and
reasonable care avoids air pockets under the newly planted rhizomes, I
don't see any reason to go to this additional trouble and then have to pin
or weight down the rhizomes whilst they grow entirely new root systems.

However I do like the idea of a light sand mulch that someone mentioned a
while ago, and since we now have an unused kiddy sandbox full of the stuff,
I might give it a try.  Ours is not "playsand" but rather coarse, sharply
gritty material from a local kyanite mine--byproduct of ore grinding.
Sharp sand is said to deter slugs, one problem we do have here.  Yeah, I
think I'll plant the rhizomes in the slightly raised beds on low mounds and
use sand mulch...should help with the drainage but keep some moisture
around the roots.

I'm also expecting some new spurias from Chehalem in Oregon (they DO
acknowledge orders!).  They will be planted in a new raised bed that was
filled with well-rotted stump grindings, originally a mixture of wood chips
and clay.  This has been amended with a good dose of lime to bring the pH
to near neutral.  Right now the bed is supporting a jungly growth of
Tithonia (Mexican sunflower), Cleome (spider flower) and Hyacinth beans
(Dolichos lablab).  Great summer combination!  The spurias will go into
large nursery containers to get re-established and then be planted out
after frost takes off the annuals.

By the way, thanks to Anner for some seed of a variegated Nicotiana
langsdorfii, now blooming throughout the garden and in pots.  The
variegation is fairly subtle in most of the plants but the little green
bells of flowers are wonderful to see.

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943 USA
bills@hsc.edu
804-223-6172
fax 804-223-6387



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