SPEC: OT: reticulata and the sequence of bloom

From: Linda Mann <lmann@icx.net>

I've enjoyed the posts from different parts of the country and world
about where things are in relation to spring/fall.

Donald Eaves asked about I. reticulata and culture/persistance.  The
first year of irislist there was a LOT of discussion about reticulata
and danfordiae, including what the native habitat was/is, and how the
growers manage to mass produce them and yet many of us can't get them to
live for more than one bloom season. There was speculation that they
need moist, but well-drained, fertile sandy soil. 

I have three 'clumps' of reticulata that have been alive for more than 5
yrs and bloom every spring.  The dont' multiply, but are still there.  I
experimented year before last with some raised beds and a 5 gallon tub
filled with mostly fine creek sand and silt, well-fertilized and kept
watered, planted with both reticulata and danfordiae.  From the local
'mart.  They were pretty spectacular the first year and pretty pathetic
this year.  At least one of the danfordiae returned.  I don't remember
seeing any bloom in the big tub, & I'd guess half in the raised bed
didn't return.

Do the bushytailed rats eat them?  If so, that may be where some of them
went - they were rooting around all thru that bed burying digging up
buckeyes.

My bulbous iris are past, the last of the species crocuses are blooming,
the first of the Anemone blandas are open, and the front yard is a sea
of early daffodils.  Also a few forsythia blooms tentatively opening
between freezes.  The I. unguicularis got too cold and turned brown
(keeping my fingers crossed that it's still alive), but the I. lazica is
still nice and green & growing - both now indoors on the windowsill.  I
foetedissima is just sitting there, green as grass, but not growing. 
Some of the bearded irises got some nasty damage to the central growing
leaf in the last freeze cycle - I'll try to post more details on the
historics this weekend.

Linda Mann east Tennessee USA
W.R.DYKES may not have been a dwarf, but he still coulda had wild
mountain dwarves for ancestors <G>


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