Re: CULT: climate effects (was HYB: seed germination)

It's why I started pollen daubing :-(

Not unusual to see that kind of behavior here in really good quality
introductions selected in other climates. The soil at the house, where I
grow most of the irises, is naturally very fertile, very gravelly, and
rainfall erratic.  Water table is less than 10 ft below the surface, so
deep roots help.

Rainfall can often be 1 or 2 inches in a day, either followed by 1 or 2
inches of rain for several more days or a month or more with no rain.
If temperatures hit the upper 80s or 90s as stalks are developing and
there is no rain for several weeks prior to bloom, stalks often abort or
the whole stalk is miniaturized in sensitive cultivars.  Plus there is
the high humidity here - normal for the growing season is 100% at night,
rarely below 60% during the day.  Dry soil & wet air.

Other cultivars look 'normal' year to year, regardless of weather,
except for late freeze damage.

Nearly everything blooms at least 6 inches shorter than registered,
regardless of weather.  The miniaturized stalks and blooms are really
cute, but I'm sure wouldn't  be recognized by their hybridizers.

On the ridge top, on clay soil, with better water holding capacity,
nearly everything blooms at registered height with normal sized blooms.

Actually, ROMANTIC EVENING is reliable here too, as such things go - has
put up at least one bloomstalk with fertile pollen every year I've had
it, & that's a whole lot more than I can say about most of the fairly
recent cultivars I've tried to grow.

<I'm surprised by your comments on Romatic Evening.

  For us  in our warmer, drier climate it increases well, and has never
put up   a short stem yet. It's one of our very reliables. Always looks
stunning
                     Colleen Modra
                     Adelaide Hills AUST
                     zone 8/9>
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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