[IRIS TALK]first year experiences(long)
From: Chris Darlington <chris.darlington@sympatico.ca>
Hello,
I just thought I'd drop a line and share some of my first iris
experiments and experiences with you . First of all , I'd like to thank
everybody who have graciously assisted me and guided me through my very
first and quite successful iris season.
The first experiment on my agenda was to see Mothers old irises that
were transplanted come back to live after a 15 year or so absence of
bloom. What seemed to be months of concern as to whether they'd bloom
finally was put rest on May 14 when the stalks reached fourth to the
sky. By June the first blooms induced nothing but pure euphoria as I
got reacquainted with the flowers I marveled at as a child. I'm unsure
as to the identity of this magnificent TB but will post to the photo
list once I've convinced somebody to scan the shots for me.
The second experiment was to try my hand at starting rhizomes indoors in
March which was a smashing success , I got 50% bloom , which was
impressive and unexpected , some of the stalks were dwarfed with smaller
petals but the increase has been encouraging. Thanks to Chris
Hollinshead for the pointers.
Finally , I wanted to try my hand at hybridizing , my goal here wasn't
to come up with a Dykes , it was simply to see the pod start to swell
into a little green football but I'm convinced that my main Historic
patch is infertile , I tried several crosses from pollen generously sent
from Maureen in Ottawa and all of the ovaries snapped off in the wind
, I even tried to self the iris with no success. Good news is that I
have a small pod swelling as I speak on Appleblossom crossed with pollen
from my historic so I 'm very pleased . I'm made several other crosses
with a lovely sky blue TB and see that they've taken . It's pretty much
guaranteed that what you buy at the garden center is not what will bloom
so this why I'm unsure of the identity of the irises in the garden.
So once again , I'd like to thank all of the listers and the creators of
the many fantastic and informative web sites out there. I've just
begun something that I know will last a life time , that is providing I
can convince the cats, Grover and Broue qui broutte dans les grands
bois ( weird French mane for a fluffy white five pound female that we
found vocalizing in the deep woods , to stop gnawing at the fans.
Chris Darlington
Montreal , Quebec
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Having difficulty getting "in synch" with list members?
http://www.onelist.com
Try ONElist's Shared Calendar to organize events, meetings and more!
