Re: CULT: Dry leaf tips

>However, the past couple of years I've been acquiring some modern
>hybrids, including some rebloomers. All these iris are incorporated into
>perennial beds <snip> What has
>just dawned on me is that none of these new iris are showing dry leaf
>tips as yet this summer even tho it's been devilishly dry & hot
>recently. <snip>Should I water *all* my iris more -- or am I
>seeing one of the differences that hybridization makes?
>
Marte, I vote for watering your rebloomers through the summer so they don't
go dormant but leaving the other plants to the whims of your weather.
Watering keeps the old boys awake, which based upon my experience won't
hurt them, but it won't improve their performance, either, so why do it?
Those older plants increase like rabbits whether they lie dormant in summer
or not.

I have a few of the 20-year-old TB cultivars planted in a mixed bed which
get more water than their counterparts in the dedicated iris bed. The
mixed-bed plants' tips don't brown and they flower just fine, so I don't
believe staving off summer dormancy harms them. But they don't flower any
better than those that remain unwatered except by rainfall and show the
classic tan tips and tired outer fans of dormancy.

Of course, we get much, much more rain than you folks. We usually receive
more than 49 inches, but this year, unless August brings drought, we will
end the year well above that amount.

celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index