CULT: TB: Ed Roberts, freeze resistance

I believe it was Mark Cook who told us several weeks ago that Ed Roberts
hybridizes in a frost pocket in Kentucky.  I wrote Mr Roberts a letter
telling him of my frost pocket and chronic problems here with spring freeze
damage and subsequent rot asking if he had found better success with his
creations.  I received a nice letter from him today, and hope he won't mind
my sharing some of what he had to say.  As always, keep in mind this is just
one data point, there are no absolutes, etc.  He said that 2 of his beds with
about 200 iris only bloomed about 5% but some of his own seedling beds did
really well.  

These are the irises that he said did well for him this year
BAL MASQUE (Cayeaux)
ALIZE (Cayeaux)
CONDOTTIERE (Cayeaux)
HANDSHAKE (Ghio)
KEVIN'S THEME (Kerr)
SULTRY MOOD (he said it was 'great') (Schreiner?)

these 5 are his that did well
EASTER CLOUD (95)
BORN A KING (93)
SUSQUEHANNA (short) (95)
FIVE STAR FINAL (95)
SILENT FORCE (94)
DETROIT CITY (hopes to be 98) he says this one was the best

I also grow SULTRY MOOD and it was in the top two performers here, but I
don't know the others.  Does anybody in the wet hot deeper south grow any of
these and if so, how did they do after the spring freezes this year?  Julie,
Walter, Joyce, Donald, Claire, Lloyd (are you there?), folks in Georgia,
Arkansas (Barb?)?   I think of France as having a Mediterranean, 'coastal'
climate compared to here and have avoided trying any of Cayeau's intros for
that reason.  These surprised me a bit.

As he says, very few iris will stand another year like this and like some of
the rest of us, he is threatening to switch to daylilies.  I am too stubborn
to quit.  Nearly 6 inches of rain so far this month.  Or was it 7?  Hot and
muggy, but not a major outbreak of rot yet - I think the bacteria must have
all drowned.

Linda Mann lmann76543@aol.com east Tennessee USA
Stupid AOL is having brown outs and sending stuff in random order again - got
some mail this afternoon that was sent Tues or Weds.  Fun trying to guess
what people are ranting about sometimes, and being on digest mode makes for
even more interesting time lags.
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