RE: HYB: Mixing cold climate and CA

Zip. zero, nada, the big goose egg for summer seedling bloom here.
So far. I would consider August to still be summer bloom here.

Lost about 15% of the 05 seed crop seedlings to spring rot from the
5 nights in a row of 17 degrees in April.  Everything went into survival
mode.  Even Sugar Blues, which is very reliable, did not bloom at it's
repeat time (@July 1). We went straight from the horrible freeze to the
dryest May on record, which probably saved the rot from being much
worse.  Currently still 6.5 inches below normal for rainfall.  Ground is dry
at deep spade depth.  Watering with the hose can only do so much.

Again And Again rotted to death this spring.  Could kick myself for not
dividing it last summer.  Then the rot would not have had a chance to
run through the connected rhizomes.

Rebloom reported so far only on Ever Cool (June), Forever Blue (June &
July) and Precious Little Pink (June & July).

I have 6 pods from frozen AAA pollen and some on/by PLP.  Still setting
pods on PLP.  If I get nice big transplants from burrito babies, I could be
seeing stalks from them by this time next year.

Iris that are going to rebloom during the hottest part of the summer need
the kind of substance that will hold up in the heat, otherwise they're just
a melted mess.  Also, as Kent Rumbaugh has complained in the past, the
Japanese beetles just gobble them up, so they might as well become cut
flowers anyway.

BTW - Due to rambunctious cats, I had a couple of stalks off at about 4
weeks this spring.  One (Edith) I put in sugar water developed 3 pods of
good looking seeds.  One (Broken Dreams) stuck in a potato was a bust.
Insignificantly small test sample, I know.

Mary Lou, near Indianapolis, Z5 - first 20 crosses in the crisper today.

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