Re: weather and warming/freezing
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] weather and warming/freezing
- From: l*
- Date: Sat, 30 Mar 02 07:39:58 -0600
>Do any of you have advice for what to do when temps are
>warm in daytime but might still dip below freezing at night?
>
>Should I be covering at night? or just covering and waiting
>until more consistent warmth?
I'm about 100 miles west of Duluth, and I don't worry about covering my
irises at all. Though I've only been growing irises seriously for a few
years, I have found they're less prone to freeze damage up here than they
apparently are in southern regions of the midwest. I assume that's
because by the time the ground warms up enough to trigger rapid growth
here (esp bloomstalks), our winter is pretty well done and gone. That's
not to say I don't see some growth and bloom aberrations that might be
freeze-related, but they don't seem as common or severe as those reported
by folks many hundreds of miles south of here.
Since you're not even seeing growth down in SP yet, I wouldn't worry
about trying to cover things on frosty nights. The only time I might
attempt to protect an iris is if I'm getting late fall rebloom that I
want to preserve, and even then my attempts are rarely successful. I
prefer to put my irises in Ma Nature's hands and let her decide which do
and which don't want to live here. If they rot, they rot. If they bloom
on stunted stalks, they bloom on stunted stalks. If they thrive, they
thrive. Ours is far too severe a climate to worry about babying
sensitive plants, and there are more than enough tough irises to fill our
gardens with reasonably low-maintenance beauty.
So my suggestion to you is that you finish cleaning last year's debris
out of your garden, then sit back and wait for spring. Let Ma warm them
up in the morning and cool them back down at night. She's got her
reasons. ;-)
Happy gardening,
Laurie
-----------------
laurief@paulbunyan.net
http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
zone 3b northern MN - clay soil
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