Re: CULT: what if this were a drought?

J. Michael, Celia or Ben Storey wrote:
> 
> Which brings me to my question. This isn't a drought; but if it were, would
> anyone water the bearded irises in his collection after, say, a month and a
> half of high-90s without rain? We had a year like that, 1980 I believe it
> was. Did you folks break down and water your bearded friends then? (I am
> much too young to remember, of course.) 

I wasn't totally out of control with the irises then, and the ones I had
were pretty much on their own.  But the drought for us wasn't nearly as
dry as it musta been out your way - we had a little over 30" of rain the
worst of those years of the 5 yr drought.  There were areas of pasture
near here that were crispy brown and looked like the rolling hills of
short grass prairie.  My gravel soil tends to get dusty dry in a hot
summer month with no rain (not all that uncommon) and most of the irises
just sit there turning brown waiting for better times.  The only ones
that have dried up and died were planted in areas with too much compost
- brittle dry organic matter seems to be a problem for roots.  I do
usually water once when I plant if it's that dry, but otherwise they are
on their own.  Some of them die, some don't bloom, but most seem to do
fine (until the rot gets them the following spring - ho ho).  I suspect
that being fried in the sun like that does cause injury and make them
more prone to disease.  But irises are carefree, right?

Linda Mann lmann@icx.net
east Tennessee USA
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