Re: CULT: Potting summer arrivals

>Walter A. Moores wrote:
>>
>> There is no way a newly-set iris can survive
>> the heat of a Texas summer.
>>
>> Even here in MS, I would never subject a new plant to the rigors
>> of a MS sun.
>
>For the benefit of iris novice on the list, I hope to give a different
>view of planting iris in the summer.  Here in the interior valley of
>California the summers regularly exceed 100 degrees.  I have always, the
>last 7 years anyway, prepared beds in June for transplanting seedlings
>and new iris arrivals.  Starting in June and continuing all summer I
>begin the planting.  The beds stay damp all summer.  True!  I rarely
>loose any iris planted this way. They put on tremendous growth during
>the summer and are firmly established going into our winter.  They
>usually bloom 2 weeks earlier than the stock transplanted in September
>and are loaded with increases.
>
>I would like to know if there are any other variables in New Mexico,
>Texas, and Mississipi that would preclude planting in the summer because
>those locations could'nt be any hotter than here.


Here in Southern Colorado we have 100+ degree days mixed with 90+ days in
July and August (and 90s into September). Last year I dug and divided and
replanted 300 square feet of iris bed that is in full sun. I didn't lose
any iris and more than half bloomed this spring. I do have a soaking system
in the bed and watered about once a week for the first month. We also have
a humidity that hovers around 15 to 20%.

I don't know how this is different than the climates that Sharon and Walter
talked about (I've lived here since I was 4!). Do they get hotter?? Is the
humidity a deciding factor?? Is the altitude here (4900 feet elevation) a
factor??


Nancy Jentzsch
jentzsch@csn.net
District Technology Resource Teacher
Pueblo School District No. 60
Pueblo, Colorado
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