Re: CULT: Shows, the iris front side & carriers
- To: i*@egroups.com
- Subject: Re: CULT: Shows, the iris front side & carriers
- From: P*@aol.com
- Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 23:33:10 EST
Evenin'
Wendy Dunafon (somewhere up in KS 25 miles from Topeka) wrote: >> What do
you consider the front of the stalk? I did not know that they had sides. Is
it the side the light is strongest on and the flowers tend to face that
direction? or does it have to do with the direction the rhizome faces? >>
Wendy. Leave the rhizome in the ground! I must admit I have been cutting
iris out late and early so quickly I did accidentally pull up a couple and
carve into a couple of others... But, honestly the rhizome has nothing to do
with the flower face.
Hold the iris stalk up in front of you. Play like you are taking a picture
of it and/or stick it in the bottle, step back, and frame it with your hands
(like a picture frame). Totally focus on the flower. Are you looking at
it's front end, it's rear end, or it's side??? They will almost always face
one way or the other. If you have 3 open with 2 facing front and one tilted
to the rear --- you GENTLY bend the one facing backwards and stick in a
little napkin or kleenex to help it to remember it needs to turn the other
way. DON'T snap off the bud. You must be gentle!
If you have a stalk that has no good side, it shouldn't have been chosen to
go to the show. Don't enter it. I will use flowers from these types in
English Boxes.
Even a stalk with a single flower open will almost always have buds facing
the front. Then again, you all know how much shade I tend to garden in so
maybe I have a slight advantage on that front!
I will say on smaller medians it can be more difficult. Especially on SDB's
and MDB's sometimes I end up using the foliage to determine the front. The
flower looks the same on both sides but the foliage will look more graceful
on one side or the other.
It takes a fine eye on some of this. One that develops over looking at
thousands and thousands of irises. And, thanks Kitty Loberg for the
encouragement about QoS... I had decided not to enter any iris shows this
year. Maybe if I have something really worthy, I'll give it a go... Ever
since Ruth Simmons passing I've been rapidly losing interest in all my
irises. Just no one to talk iris with around here anymore... And they are
so difficult to grow and grow well in Oklahoma...
BTW, would someone mind sending me a .jpg of one of those neat sounding
sprinkler pipe carrying sytems???? It sounds fascinating!
Kath in OKC where I'm seriously afflicted with Sooner magic or is it
madness??? and still trying to get my feet to touch the ground after the
SOONERS awesome National Championship win in the Orange Bowl night before
last...
alias: Kathy Poore Oklahoma City OKLAHOMA AIS Region 22, USDA Zone 7
