Re: Re: TB: Old vs. new

>    I have read quite a lot on this list of how the historic irises are 
>better, stronger, etc. than the newer ones.  I wonder if that just seems 
>to be true because only the toughest of the old ones have managed to 
>survive.

I believe there's truth in that observation.  The surviving and still 
popular historics have withstood the test of time and trials by climate, 
disease, and insects.  I also believe, however, that *as a general rule* 
the older historics possess a toughness that has diminished in successive 
generations of breeding for prettier faces.  It's not unlike what 
happened to Quarter Horses.  Over the years, breeders of competitive 
halter horses decided small feet were aesthetically more pleasing than 
large ones.  Unfortunately, they didn't stop to consider that 1000 lb 
animals shouldn't be walking around on teacups.  Those pretty little feet 
resulted in a whole lot of chronically lame horses incapable of the sort 
of work for which they were originally bred and raised.

One thing I can say with relative certainty about a few of my unknown 
historics is that they are far more successful garden competitors than 
the moderns.  When I traded for my first irises a few years back, I 
really had no idea what I was doing.  I ended up with about 50 different 
irises and crammed them all into a bed I created under the canopy of a 
big box elder.  I dug out most of the quack grass and filled the area 
with moderately-aged horse manure and pine shavings directly into which I 
planted the irises.  Not surprisingly, almost all of those irises died.  
I was so discouraged that I abandoned the bed to the quack grass, where 
still years later 3 or 4 of my old historics manage to survive and even 
occasionally bloom.  When I dig through the waist-high quack grass to 
remove a few rzs for neighbors, I find them not much larger than green 
beans.  But they're still alive and kicking, doggone it!  The more modern 
irises in that bed didn't last a year.

>it's the ones that don't that we hear about, 
>because it seems more urgent to complain than to praise.

True again, so I'll join you in bucking the trend and name some of my 
more modern, tough TB survivors.  In the rebloomer beds, ZURICH, 
WINTERLAND, HARVEST OF MEMORIES, HOLY NIGHT, and LILTING have proven 
themselves exceptionally hardy, impressively vigorous, and reliable 
bloomers.  EARL OF ESSEX, QUEEN DOROTHY, LATIN LOVER, and I DO are also 
vigorous growers and tough survivors, though they are not as reliable in 
terms of bloom.  In the main beds with heavier soil and less than full 
sun, STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN has toughed it out with good increase when 
hundreds of others perished, though I haven't yet seen it bloom.  
STARSTRUCK, BLENHEIM ROYAL, PROUD TRADITION, and RAIN CHECK bloomed this 
year against all odds in the main beds, though they are all still quite 
small clumps.

I have added quite a few historics of various ages to my main beds this 
year, so I'll be testing my own theory about the hardiness and vigor of 
old vs new over the coming years.

Laurie


-----------------
laurief@paulbunyan.net
http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
zone 3b northern MN - clay soil


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