Re: OT: Razzleberri/Tasco-Tulsa/etc =^.^=

From: Pooreplace@aol.com

Evenin' all.....  pardon me while I yawwwwwn....  

Just got back from Tulsa...  Great meeting Rick Tasco from Superstition plus 
got a couple "freebies" !!!   I finally got to meet the Springfield 
Simmons'es; and for the first time when we both knew who each other was that 
we were talking to --- I got to meet the two awesome Keislings, Judy & Ray... 
 Tulsa had a GREAT Missouri contingent tonight!  I was a bit saddened that 
Rick brought not one slide of his latest and greatest...  Drove 4 hours to 
find out that this was a HISTORICAL talk, so madame Poore House here saw 
nothing of an iris dated anytime outside of the years 1797 to 1929...  
Nonetheless Rick did a great job & we did get to chat a bit.  Plus I had to 
order funeral flowers and get my hoops hotel reservations for next week in 
Tulsa anyway so it certainly was a worthwhile trip, despite the history 
lesson.  I mean, no slant to HIPS here, but where do you RUSH out to buy 
irises 70 to 202 years old???  

Am certainly enjoying all the Razzleberri Bush banter...   Spent some time on 
the phone today with my buds at Warren & Son's Greenhouse in Nicoma Park who 
first brought the newer and improved Lorapetalum (thanks Walter!) varieties 
to our area three years ago...  Not a single one of us have had the bush 
defoliate on us even though we've certainly hit 8 degrees over some 48 to 60 
hour stretches and it just keeps on tickin...  

Warren's gets their varieties (2 at present) from GreenLeaf Nurseries in 
Tahlequah.  And Tahlequah is over some little hills just east of Tulsa a 
bit...  DEEP in the heart of zone 6 or at least 6.5...   Greenleaf tends not 
to market anything that could do marginally and this year has been a stellar 
year for the Lorapetalum (as it is also sounding from your posts)...  Mine, 
Peggy Estes, Loretta Aaron's and all of Warrens have absolutely bloomed 
themselves silly now for well over a month, with no letup in sight...  

Warren's did advise that in Oklahoma we probably won't see one spread to 8' 
by 8'...  More like 3 1/2' by 4' or maybe 4' x 4'...  That's what mine is 
quickly approaching...  I'd think the advantage to these over azaleas would 
be the easy care and no primp and bother like you have with azaleas... Peat 
moss, pecan hulls, constant this and that like with roses...  Plus these are 
so totally pest and disease free.  The best variety around here seems to be 
"Burgandy Lace" which is what I think mine is...  Peggy calls hers claret or 
burgundy colored blooms, mine really looks more bluish fuschia...  Towards 
that bright pink mini celosia color with a dash of blue.  I do agree that it 
will probably take more of a place along things like the pink flowering 
almond and/or maybe the Anthony Water Spiraea...    

Warren's feels that Razzleberri, sometimes called the "fringe bush" by other 
marketers would certainly be good to the Kansas Oklahoma border, which to me 
is a solid zone 6 or 7...  It's the treacherous winters with days of 
sub-freezing ground temps that could hurt it they believe, although we've 
been there a few times so far and it's not phased them one iota...  

Rosalie, I'd go for it!  I've certainly spent my $45 on irises that rotted to 
mush before I got the box open.  You should be able to find them under $7.95 
easily....  If not, let me know & I'll box one up from Warrens and put it on 
the UPS truck to you...  They have some 2' tall by 1.5 to 2' spreading ones 
now in one gallons for $6.95 although the first few hundred they got (plus 
their last fall leftovers) bloomed so prolifically it stopped traffic way out 
in Nicoma Park (about 28 miles way out east of me by Marthella Shoemake's 
house) and caused a run on the store...  People were hauling them off by the 
truckloads... They also have some 5 gallon ones for $18.95...   

Don't think anything can ever be overdone again like the Bradford Pears, 
(isn't that what they all said about the elms???) but for now Oklahoma is a 
spectacular sight with so many tens of thousands of them in pure white bloom 
all over the state...  I can't tell you how many thousand I passed on the 
turnpikes today that looked like they were absolutely loaded with snow!  

Course, don't get too close downwind of the callery pears for they definitely 
reak of the potent famed Oklahoma City Stockyards...  And I know from 
personal experience there is ONE that smells worse than the Bradford --- 
beware the Clevelandii Pear...  WWWHHHHOOOOOOOWWEEEEEEE.......   I had called 
Oklahoma City Sewer & Sanitation out at all hours of the day and night well 
over a dozen times before we finally figured out it was my dreaded neighbor's 
darn tree that butts up to my property line & my lovely blooming Tulip Tree 
(Liriodedron tulipifera) right in front of my house, door, occasionally 
opened window, and front porch...  Even the KATS won't go near the thing when 
it's a stinkin in bloom...   

Must run...  Ya'll take care.  BTW, you would NOT believe how many hands flew 
up tonight in Tulsa when the group was asked how many already had irises in 
bloom!  Looks like we are running between 3 to 4 weeks ahead of regular bloom 
time...  Scary.    

Kath in hoopsy OKC... =^.^= alias:  Kathy L. Poore     AIS Region 22,  USDA 
Zone 7 and only 200 miles north of "Fast Dallas"...  

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