Re: blaming the cultivar


:So, the bottom line is that if I take a poll of what is resistant and plant
:only the varieties that everybody says are resistant (A, B, and C), only 2/3
:of the iris i spend my hard earned cash on will be resistant, whereas if i
:buy them at random, about 3 out of 10 will be resistant.  Now exactly what
:was the point you were making? <grin>

Well, there are two points. One is that there may be no resistance at all
(my first scenario), in which case you'd be getting 0 reward for your
effort and missing out on growing some nice irises. And the second point
(assuming for argument that the second scenario is correct, some varieties
really are resistant) is that most people aren't as detached about it as
you suggest, feeling that they're simply "upping the odds" a bit. They
will take it as fact that a particular variety is resistant or susceptible,
and spread that opinion around as fact.

There's nothing wrong with a tentative conclusion that your odds of
success may be better with some cultivars than others...it may even turn
out to be true. What gets under my skin, though, is a comment like (tell
me you've never overheard this at a club meeting) "PURPLE PARADISE rotted
the first year I got it; then I replaced it and it bloomed out. Why did
Joe Bloe ever introduce such a bad performer?"

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Tom Tadfor Little         tlittle@lanl.gov  -or-  telp@Rt66.com
technical writer/editor   Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Telperion Productions     http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
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