rot resistant tall bearded
- Subject: rot resistant tall bearded
- From: L*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 13 Feb 96 19:05:34 MST
sorry for this long message...i put together a lisst of iris i
have that do well (sometimes have some rot, but never enough to
kill the plant) all of these have endured various levels of
neglect ranging from reasonably intensive weeding to disappearing
under sweet william or fescue. my garden is in a frost pocket
and is a rich gravelly black loam that will rot a remarkable
diversity of tall bearded iris, which of course, is all i want to
grow.
these are the tough ones: dusky challenger, desert realm, vanity,
ice sculpture, jael's conquest, vitafire, laced cotton, sky hooks
(i don't like horns but this one is so healthy!), world class
(fell over last year), victoria falls (only occasionally falls
over - weeds help hold it up - grows well smothered in sweet
william), dusky flare, stairway to heaven, kentucky derby,
lullaby of spring (haven't had long - this one may fall over),
leda's lover (haven't had long), a seedling from Tom Parkhill,
Knoxville, tn, much like stepping out which grows and blooms like
a weed here - much better than either stepping out or going my
way which both rot for me, montevideo, persian gown, a very tall
heavily ruffled light blue that always falls over (one of my
favorites - a vigorous grower plus i am forced to cut the stalks
and take them indoors), rubistar (i love this one, but later
blooms are smaller in hot dry weather), Silver showers, raspberry
ripples, christmas time?, sheer poetry, night affair, sunday
sunshine (leans), fiesta song, joyful news (fell over last year),
several hooker nichols iris that i am not crazy about (too
short), cruzin, cup race, immortality (it sulked for 2 yrs until
i fertilized it), plus another 4 or 5 i have no names for or
cant' think of
these do well when cold does not prevent or damage bloom: titan's
glory (often does not bloom), babbling brook (usually does),
pinafore pink (usually does - an extremely reliable monstrosity),
jesse's song (it usually blooms, but stalks are often stunted and
flowers deformed from cold), silverado and honky tonk blues are
off to a very bad start - both rot and stunted with cold, april
in paris (terrible leaf spot).
i would have said song of norway was one of my most reliable. i
had a huge clump of it until two? years ago, when the whole clump
rotted before i knew what was happening.
i am eager to hear more suggestions of rot resistant varieties,
especially tall recent intros.
my recent strategy has been to order end of year collections from
growers who do that sort of thing, describe my garden torture
chamber and throw myself on their mercy. that way, i get a
chance to try some fairly new introductions and don't lose nearly
as many plants. tb's of eastern hybridizers seem to mostly be
short - anybody trying for statuesque style iris in our disease
prone climate? i really like the grace of iris like desert realm
and vitafire, which don't have many blooms open at once, but lots
of stalks. but my all time favorite is still dusky challenger.
anybody out there have other recent rot resistant favorites?
i don't much care for dwarfs, medians, mtb's etc. would love to
see some of the color patterns in tb's though. am trying to like siberians.
linda mann
kingston tn
