Re: West Coast Irises

Mark Cook wrote (13 Feb 97):

> >      I would like to know what kind of luck Iris growers in the east
are
> > having with Bearded  Irises that were hybridized on the West Coast.  I
know
> > that some growers in this area claim that Irises from the west will not
> > grow well here.  The Irises that I grow originated in more than one
part of
> > the US.  My own observations indicate that Irises that were hybridized
on
> > the West Coast are no more likely to fail to grow than those that were
> > hybridized on the East Coast.

and Rick Tasco replied(13 Feb 97):
 
> What a refreshing point of view!  When I lived in Northern Virgina I
> ordered iris mainly from Schrieners and Keppel.  I never had any
> problems growing these iris.  Unfortunately I do remember the horrid
> iris borers which attacked the poor things.  Glad I don't have them
> here.

My experience with growing TB iris in northern Utah has been that failure
of certain cultivars to thrive can more readily be related to certain
hybridizers' breeding lines (in some cases all of a hybridizer's breeding
lines, in others only some of them) rather than to geographic area of
origin, with one exception. I have never had any TB iris that originated in
the south central region (Texas and Oklahoma) that were better than
mediocre growers for me. Admittedly, this generalization is based on a
limited number of observations, but it seems to make some sense, as the
area in question probably has the most climatic differences from this one
of any where TB iris are hybridized in quantity.

Incidentally, not only do we not have iris borers in Utah, but there are no
Japanese beetles or June bugs either. We are supposed to have voles, but
all I have seen is common field mice. However, at nearly 19 years of age,
our cat's hunting days are over, so I do not get a sample of the local
rodent fauna laid out for my inspection the way Clarence does. 

Jeff Walters in northern Utah (Zone 4)
cwalters@cache.net
"This is the Place" - Iris Heaven, if Botrytis would go to H---!
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