REB & Landscape iris

From: John Montgomery <monashee@junction.net>

The July Bulletin finally arrived yesterday to these higher latitudes.
It was worth the wait with several very interesting papers.

I noted with particular interest a comment in the paper by Don & Ginny
Spoon. the exact quote escapes me but I think in a couple of places they
mention their preference for plants which increase somewhat slowly and
thus do not require frequent dividing and replanting.

One of the chores which I like least is digging up, dividing and
replanting perennial plants. I have repeatedly noticed comments on this
list to the effect that super vigorous growth is a good trait. Maybe,
but generally, my hope is to slow them down.

I do not breed iris but I do breed lilies and one thing trait which is
apt to produce a quick trip to the compost pile is a lily which makes a
lot of stem bulblets. My preference is for a bulb which increases in
size, and splits with few of even no bulblets produced. This will give a
gradually larger clump with no need to get out the digging fork for five
or more years.
It seems to me that many modern TB iris simply increase much too
quickly. Am I alone in thinking this?

Cheers
John Montgomery
m*@junction.net
Vernon  BC  Zone 5   -----      2 + 2 = 5 (for suitably large values of
2)





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