Re: TB: low bloom height this year
iris@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: TB: low bloom height this year
  • From: B* A* G* <b*@cybermesa.com>
  • Date: Sun, 02 Jun 2013 10:55:25 -0600
Sounds like a lot of work!  Bravo for your dedication and helpful hints.
Betty G.
On 6/2/2013 10:09 AM, Pat wrote:

Observations from Northern Nevada ..
Here in the Great Basin we have to deal with sandy, extremely alkaline soil, brutal temperature swings and hot, dry conditions as well as a severe lack of rain or snow fall (1.87" last year and .90" so far this year). I have to water my irises all year round to keep them alive. I always have frost damage to my earlier flowering irises .. short stems, no stems, ragged leaves, deformed flowers, etc. There are very few early blooming varieties in my collection of 270 different cultivars. Today (June 2) there are still 10 more varieties with fat buds that won't open for another week. My garden is a riot of color now that the morning freezes are apparently done. The last frost was May 20 when it dropped to 27 degrees. I had lots of bud up and covered as many as possible with heavy cotton socks. I got to see a lot of beautiful flowers that would have been destroyed.
I have found that mulching with pine needles works well in preventing ground level bud damage from frost. Also, for a dozen choice plants I cover the entire clump with a foam ice chest as soon as I see green. I remove the covers after the sun comes up and warms the air. We have high winds in the spring so I secure the covers with ground nails. I've tried floating covers but they don't stand up to the wind. It's a lot of work but the flowers are worth it. 

Pat Canter
----- Original Message ----- From: "Betty Wilkerson" <autmirislvr@aol.com> 
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2013 4:41 AM
Subject: Re: [iris] TB: low bloom height this year
Thought I was going to come on and brag about having stalks of normal height this year. Then, I realized that most of the things I could brag about having 
good height were my own seedlings!
People that are relatively new to iris collection may need to know there are some irises you can't grow. Anyway, this seems to be the lesson I've taken 
from 30 years of trying to grow things from around the world.
We do seem to be in a new weather phase. Although we've never had a "normal" season (according to irisarians), general weather conditions where I live (Zone 6 KY) I have been more radical in the past few years. With the worst years being 2007 & 2012, the years of the giant freeze. When these happen, it's easy to explain why the irises are acting strange. It's the result of an early and extended warm up, followed by a hard freeze. I'm on top of a hill 
so I get everything available.
Things like fried blooms, extra flower parts, short stalks, missing branches and buds, and sterile plants (both pod and pollen) seem to be the result of less severe weather conditions. Plants seem more sensitive these days. When I first moved out here in 2003, I rarely got damage unless the temperatures 
hit 32.  Now, I'm getting some damage at highter lows?  Maybe, I'm just
getting less tolerant with old age!





Betty Wilkerson
Zone 6 KY
autmirislvr@aol.com




-----Original Message-----
From: Phloid <phloid@bellsouth.net>
To: iris <iris@hort.net>
Cc: Linda Mann <lmann@lock-net.com>
Sent: Sat, Jun 1, 2013 11:01 pm
Subject: Re: [iris] TB: low bloom height this year


Thanks Linda! You explained my all observations. If I clock back 6 wks
then just my normal weather, if there is such a thing these days, is
going result in hit or miss for E to M. And, as I observed, less so as I
go post M, even within the same clump. I have gone from 20 or so to 200
cvs in two years and after orders go in this year I'll be up to 350+.
Yes - the bug bit. I need to develop your spirit about the whole affair
- chalk up the losses to learning. I'm gonna learn a LOT about who can
hang with just the normal weather here much less the bad.

Have you experimented with row covers? For display beds that would be a
lot faster than putting temp mulch down and pulling it off later. Ugly
but no uglier than stunted flowers and rotting fans.

I have a frostier, wetter bottom and less frosty, drier upland. Cardoon
is supposed to overwinter better up than btm according to the books. I
never loose it in the bottom & loose every year up. I speculate soil
temp fluctuating might be less in the btm and/or the soil staying colder
keeps the plant more hardened off. So I'll experiment with the irises
for same.

Shaub SW NC Z6b

On 6/1/2013 8:07 PM, Linda Mann wrote:

The critical timing for stalks being stunted seems to be about 6 weeks
<before> bloom in TBs here.  This is before stalks are showing or can
be felt in the fan.

So that's usually some time in March, well before last average freeze
date.  Critical temperature seems to be below mid-20s. Anything below
about 20, especially if night time temperatures have been above
freezing for ? a week?, will knock out just about all TB bloom the
following month. Stunting can occur if temps are cold, but not cold
enough to kill stalks before they emerge. & of course, all of this
varies to some extent among different cultivars and effects are much
worse if cold follows a really warm spell in early to mid March.

Those temperature thresholds are based on my experiences here for 40+
years growing irises - I'm in a low spot, shaded from morning sun by a
ridge behind my house, so cold settles and stays.

Rotting terminals are another issue - on new plants, especially those
coming from a milder climate, just plain cold temperatures seem to
kill terminals over the winter.

On plants that are 'adjusted' to climate here, those late freezes that
knock out terminals definitely set plants up for major rot problems.
Some cultivars seem to rot more readily after that kind of damage than
others..

Linda Mann east TN USA zone 7b

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