Re: CULT:Spurias for the south

I think Pat Norvell should pipe up and contribute here.  She was growing
several spuria cultivars at the time of the Dallas convention.  And, boy,
did they look healthy and nice.  Her clump of CINNAMON STICK was the nicest
clump of iris of any kind I've ever seen.  The kind that lingers in the mind
and makes a gardener wannabe keep chipping at the rocks in hopes to have
something even a quarter as nice.  The kind of clump gardening catalogs put
on the cover and inside the pages to coax gardener wannabes and gardeners to
overspend (works, too).

I grow several.  Only the original (probably I. ochraleuca) has been here
long enough to establish a clump.  Only ZULU CHIEF died last year and it was
in the first season after acquisition.  They seem slow to establish for me
compared to other irises, but they did withstand the last several years of
drought and I didn't give any supplemental water subsequent to bloom season.
The biggest drawback so far has been the lateness of their bloom.  So far
the ones that have bloomed have waited for very hot weather, so the blooms
suffer from heat and beetles both. The original plant has had good years and
was spectacular and also bloomed after it was too hot.  I'm hoping after the
clumps adjust to the climate, that won't be the case.  I think, though, that
if one can be patient and wait for them to make the clumps, these are going
to prove to be durable and attractive additions.  Most of mine go completely
dormant, but they might not do it so quickly if the weather remained
temperate a bit longer.  I'll get that weather cycle too one of these days
and find out.

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7, USA


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