Re: OT-BIO: Claudia

In a message dated 6/18/00 8:01:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
claudia@etal.uri.edu writes:

<< I am an avid gardener, live in RI zone 5, work as a programmer analyst at
 URI (local University), have horses/ponies which I ride and drive.  Spring
 is always a problem, which do I do? gardens or horses?>>

Welcome, Claudia.  It's always especially nice to welcome someone with the 
same horsing/gardening dilemma!  Since I only have 1 horse and hundreds of 
irises, the irises have been winning mostly.
 
<< Anyway last year I bought a number of TB Iris in pots, planted them and had
 good luck last year.  This spring they got mushy and yellow.  I believe it
 may be because I mulched them.  I have been mulching my flower gardens for
 many reasons and it has been pretty successful but I think I may have
 mulched the the Iris too closely.  Can anyone tell me about mulching Iris?
 do's and don'ts.  Would appreciate any help.. bth way I pulled back the
 mulch and they seem to be recovering but unfortuneately NONE of them 
bloomed.>>

In a nutshell, the do's and don'ts of mulching bearded irises in a climate 
like ours:  DON'T.  Bearded irises do not like wet feet and with the wet 
weather we've had in the Northeast this year, it has been a challenge to keep 
them from sulking and rotting.  It's hard to say why yours didn't bloom this 
year, but there are many possibilities. I lost many incipient bloom stalks to 
late frosts.  Some varieties just tend to not bloom every year.  Etc., etc.  

I would be sure they are getting lots of sun (such as there is this year!), 
at least a half day, and be sure they have good drainage.  In my experience 
that is the two most important factors in bearded iris gardening. Hopefully 
they will continue to recover and reward you next year.

Again, welcome to the list!

Dorothy Stiefel
(Dryden, NY, USA  Zone 5)
IrisAcher@aol.com
  

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