Re: CULT:TB: Iris Mulch
- To: iris-talk@onelist.com
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] CULT:TB: Iris Mulch
- From: B*@aol.com
- Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 12:18:07 EDT
From: BobGWilson@aol.com
Dear Anner and Bill, I seem to be either the "idiot"iris grower or the avant
garde fool. I had a raised bed - about 4' above the sloping driveway - at my
office. Every year the owners would put 3-4" of coarse shredded mulch around
the junipers and yews. The actual soil was 8-10" below the surface. This
garden - about 8'x12' needed some spring color. I planted four different
iris. Two years later, I was digging rhizomes the size of large sweet
potatoes, and had larger than expected and more abundant blooms than in my
well tended garden. Probably the coarse mulch allowed drainage,allowed room
for root growth,and did not decay like cocoa shells. Also, this bed recieved
direct sun untiol 4:00 in the afternoon.
There seems to be some concern in the Michigan area regarding herbacides like
Preen. Two growers side by side in Cedar Springs experimented. One used
Preen, the other not. It seemed that the "non Preen"seemed to have long term
greater rhizome increase than the 'Preen user', but this was not totally
scientifically controlled. Cordially, Bob Wilson
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