Re: Re: CULT: dream irises

Pat,

I've noticed a number of comments about JI not doing well in the Gulf
Coast states, and I'm surprised. We tried growing our first JI in Los
Angeles County, California. We started by growing them in pots, using
the soilless mix (peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite). During the two
years that we tried this experiment, the JI did better in the pots than
in the ground. However, they didn't have the correct type of soil while
they were in the ground. The plants were placed next to the foundation
of the house in part shade. The soil in that spot was construction
subsoil with an inadequate amount of amendments. We suspect the concrete
residue from the foundation and construction sub-soil was feeding the
plants too much lime, and the soil was not acid or rich enough to feed
the plants properly. Consequently, it did not represent a proper test
for the growth of JI.

We did see JI growing well in the nearby horticultural/botanical
gardens. If my memory serves me correctly, it was probably the
Huntington Gardens were we saw a number of JI and SPUR blooming happily
in a pond/stream setting.

Today, we're growing JI on Puget Sound, Washinton in soil that was
formerly a horse pasture and the glacial till of an island slope. The JI
we brought from Los Angeles and the first JI we purchased by mail order
after our move here have not performed very well. We know the reason for
their poor to fair performance is the inadequate nature of the soil. The
rain leaches most of the humus out of the soil, leaving it too poor for
the JI. The horses left behind a rich uric acid which you can still
smell a decade later when digging in certain spots. Yet, the remaining
soil attributes are still undesirable for the JI.

Later plantings of the JI were put into the same type of soil that had
been heavily amended with compost or with peat moss and organic
fertilizers. Amendments of soil:peat moss of 1:1, 2:1, and 3:1 have
produced very good results with the JI and the SIB. These amendments
have gone far to alleviate the tendency of the soil to become as hard as
concrete after two to five days without rain. The acid-loving plants
seem to thrive in the new soil. Last year and this year we made some
spot measurements of the foliage height for our iris. We found that the
SIB plants tend to be 5 to 7 inches taller than their checklists
describe. The later JI, despite inadequate fertilization and watering,
seem to meet the checklist heights at the very least, and they are
blooming nicely in our 70+ something daytime temperatures.

Could you be getting too much lime from the Texas hardpan despite your
soil amendments? Have you tried the soilless mix without Texas soil?

Dallas Patterson
nye@fidalgo.net
USDA Zone 8 on Puget Sound


patsiris@aol.com wrote:
> 
> I would love to have a JI, any color at all, that would grow  well and bloom
> here in Dallas without the extreme measures it takes now (with poor results).
>                                                                Pat in Dallas
> 
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