Re: Re: CULT: weather

Dana,

> I find this most interesting.  We went to 9 at the same time you went to
14
>and although we had some foliage burn (some of it pretty severe) I found no
>ill effects on the bloom.  Do you suppose the week or so difference in our
>bloom time makes that much difference?

Oh, yeah!  Two weeks of fan growth containing incipient bloom stalks?  Then
a freeze penetrating that fan for a few hours?  The growth usually stops on
a bloom fan.  They can even stay green until fall, but their life cycle as a
rhizome for producing a bloom is finished.  The smaller and less developed
the incipient stalk, the more likely the fan will stay green longer.
Sometimes it is difficult to be sure they were potential bloom fans.  If
they are carefully dissected at some point, the stalks can be identified
usually.  They can be very small, though, deep in the core of the fan.  The
stalk portion is what is truly killed.  It will either dry up or turn mushy
and dangerous to the health of the plant.  Under my normal conditions they
tend to wither and dry up, eventually detaching from the rhizome more
naturally.  Occasionally everything starts turning soft and needs to be
removed pronto.  I've had a couple of those already.  Fans that don't
contain bloomstalks are the ones that eventually recover and grow.  When the
core of a fan is leaf growth, it is more resistant to having the core
killed.  Growth can look odd until the part that is damaged eventually grows
out completely.  That can be a longer process that you'd expect, too,
depending on the damage to the center of the fans.

White frost everywhere this morning.  29F on the porch, probably as low as
26F in some place in my yard.  However the irises manage the freeze, it will
certainly hurt a lot things otherwise.  I hate to see the oak trees get
zapped in their current stage of spring growth, but they certainly got bit
last night.  Probably not a good scenario here for the next several weeks.
Maybe next year.

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA

> We woke to snow on the ground on Friday morning and the freeze you avoided
>last night got us.   We went down to 27, much better than the 23 they were
>threatening us with.  It blasted all of the open buds but most of the
stalks
>that were not showing color look pretty good.  Of course we won't know for
>sure until for a few days.  They are forecasting 27 tonight.  If they miss
>it by as much as they did last night I will be thrilled.  I moved the two
>pots of germinating seeds into the shop.  It sure was nice to see that
>second pot of seedlings start to pop.  We found the second pot this morning
>while we were looking for damage.  So, tonight they go inside too.  Maybe
>there will be more in the morning!!
> So sorry that you will lose most of your bloom.  That is so disheartening.
>We were discussing this last night on the chat and when I told them that we
>have never had a bloom season without a freeze after bloom started, they
>were surprised.  Our SDB's start to bloom in March and our average last
>freeze date is April 9th, so we always have a freeze after bloom starts.
It
>is just one of those things we have learned to live with.
> Now thinning those seedlings without seeing them bloom would be hard.  My
>seedlings are my pride and joy and I would rather see them bloom than the
>rest of the iris.  I might have to expand my iris growing space just so I
>could keep the babies.
>
>Good luck tonight!!
>
>Dana
>
>
>Dana Brown
>AIS Region 17 Judges Training Chairperson
>Director TBIS
>AIS, ASI, MIS, RIS, SPIS, TBIS
>Malevil Iris Gardens
>Lubbock, TX
>Zone 7 USDA, Zone 10 Sunset
>d*@malevil-iris.com
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-iris@hort.net [o*@hort.net]On Behalf Of Donald
>Eaves
>Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2003 9:50 AM
>To: iris@hort.net
>Subject: Re: [iris] Re: CULT: weather
>
>>Well, at least we should be used to it by now....
>>The center (worst part) of this one is aiming right for you again Donald
>>(Texas), so won't hit us as bad farther east.
>
>Used to it, even resigned to it happening more often than not, but not
>liking it.  The late, very cold spell we've already had did a lot more
>damage than I expected.  Most of the arilbred bloom got eliminated it seems
>and the early TBs are showing weird shaped stalks and buds emerging - sure
>signs of freeze damage.  I guess 14F is just going to penetrate the fans
and
>leave the effects if it falls after active growth has started.  I thought
>I'd have more arilbreds escape and most of the TBs, but I was wrong.
>
>We missed a freeze last night.  Only 39 instead of the predicted 32.
>Depending on the forecast as to what may be in store tonight and tomorrow
>night.  A freeze now would more or less effectively close the door on iris
>bloom this year.  I wasn't expecting a lot from the TBs this year anyway
>after the decimation by the grasshoppers last summer.  But then we had a
>nice, long mild winter with some moisture now and then.  They grew all
>winter and looked to be managing to perhaps get to bloom size rhizomes.
>Some apparently did, but the bloom will still be lighter than normal.
Quite
>a few seedlings with apparent stalks.  Want to see them.  I need their
space
>and I hate to discard them 'til I've seen them bloom.
>
>Donald Eaves
>donald@eastland.net
>Texas Zone 7b, USA
>
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