Re: IRIS CULTURE: Small rhizomes

In a message dated 7/15/01 11:39:06 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
prw@televar.com writes:

<< 
 I think possibly Sharon McAlister and Jeff Walters live in areas such as
 mine so perhaps they can expand on my theory. >>

Many years ago, I encountered the belief that the number of leaves a rhizome 
had was an indicator of whether it was large enough to bloom.  Of course, I 
felt compelled to test this....

For TBs, the idea proved to have some merit as those with more than 4 leaves 
did achieve a higher percentage of bloom.

Of course, the dormancy factor eliminates this indicator in arilbreds -- so I 
tried sorting by rhizome size but found no significant difference.  

I DID, however, discover other indicators of maturity and thus bloom-to-come:

An increase mature enough to have separated from the mother rhizome naturally 
is more likely to provide first-year bloom than an increase still attached so 
firmly that it has to be broken or cut off. 

An increase mature enough to have started to form its own increase will 
almost certainly bloom the next spring if left undisturbed and given adequate 
food and water.  Divided and moved within my garden at the appropriate time, 
same story.  Divided and left out of the ground so long that it doesn't get 
its fall growth in -- no bloom!

The question, of course, is whether TBs have similar maturity indicators.....

Sharon McAllister
Southern NM, where there are enough micro-climates to drive the zone-plotters 
crazy

  

 

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