Re:Cult :Bloomout

In a message dated 7/3/2000 8:30:49 AM Central Daylight Time, 
irischapman@netscape.net writes:

<<  In that case to say that there is
 no increase on plants with no new roots is the same is saying that when there
 is no new roots when there is no increase. >>

    In the early 80's I collected all manner of iris information.  I ordered 
and read all  R & I's, The World of Iris, many regional bulletins (one of my 
favorites was edited by Clarence), the AIS Bulletins, and a large number of 
catalogs.  You can learn a lot from catalogs.  When my eyes crossed from too 
much reading, I started going to regional meetings and 'interviewing' 
hybridizers.  You would have noticed me, since I was the one with the long 
list of questions.  
    Many things I learned with all this research has since been challenged.  
Not having learned my lesson (or being too old to care) I will stick my neck 
out again.  There are as many differing opinions as there are irisarians.  
But, here goes.  

***     Why is the ratio of increases to bloom stalks important in the 
garden?  **** Too few bloom stalks seems a waste of precious space if the 
trait is consistent.  But who would complain about too many bloom stalks? 
    A mother rhizome (which was once an increase, of course) usually does one 
of two things--increase or bloom.  I was told it couldn't do both, but I 
didn't believe that even in the beginning. I soon read reports of spent 
rhizomes sunk in sand that produced new increase, and personally observed 
this happening.  HOWEVER, there is enough truth in this statement for it to 
merit some consideration. 
    It seems to me that roots and increase are kinda like the old song Love 
and Marriage.  As the line went, "You can't have one without the other!"  
Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Etc., etc., etc.
    From my perspective, which is limited, of course, the question is--why do 
some rhizomes repeatedly produce more blooming rhizomes than increasing 
rhizomes? Is it genetics?  And how do they ever produce enough rhizomes to go 
commercial in the beginning?
    People will tell you to set a cross on a seedling that is blooming out, 
but it doesn't always work.  Other people will tell you to move an iris 
that's trying to bloom out. The shock is supposed to get it growing, but that 
doesn't always work either.  Does nicking the rhizome work?  Didn't try this 
one, but I did leave a couple of rhizomes in a bed I planned to reuse.  I hit 
that thing with a tiller, without knowing, and had little increases all over 
the place the next spring.  So I'd guess it probably will work, or just hit 
it with a tiller!  

Betty in a rainy Bowling Green Ky . . . extremely happy to have both the rain 
and a day off tomorrow.  



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