Re: HYB: Hardiness

From: IRISROT@aol.com

In a message dated 1/28/99 5:03:43 PM Pacific Standard Time,
vincelewonski@yahoo.com writes:

> > 
>  If I can get irises established with good growth before winter, they
>  usually survive. Little ones that aren't established are also more
>  vulnerable to frost heave here. If I plant in September/October, it
>  doesn't give enough time to get good growth, and the % dying will be
>  high.
>  
>  
>  ==
>  Vince Lewonski
>  Se
Hi Vince,

Here in St. Louis even if the iris are rooted well before winter doesn't mean
it will survive the winter especially the California iris. What happens is we
get warmup periods in Jan. & Feb. sometimes the California iris will start
growing thinking the winter is over and wham they are hit with a hard freeze.
Usually the tough ones will survive and the weak ones go by the wayside to
iris heaven. I guess I should mulch them the first winter but I have always
cleaned my beds so is hard to change your ways. 

Does anyone have iris that just sit there and never increase? I have a few of
these and believe it or not "Before The Storm" does this for me. I have two
clumps and still not getting that much increase. Now a lesson for all you
rookies....do you know how to get increase off a plant? Try this...take a very
sharp knife and put a couple of nicks in each side of the rhizome. Just small
v's not much but you should get an increase in at least two of these. Also do
this on an iris you are about to lose due to blooming out. Soon as you see the
single rhizome is putting up a bloomstalk cut the nicks in the rhizome.
Sometimes it will work sometimes not but it's worth the effort. Tip for the
day.

					Jim Loveland, Fenton, MO

------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index