Re: CULT: anticipation

Christian  --  What part of Kentucky are you in that you have red clay?
About your seedlings that are standing on tiptoe or hanging on by a single root: The Banyan tree appearance could be a prelude to disaster. Just a little more freeze-and-thaw could topple them over and cook them as they lie on the ground. I speak from bitter experience. After severe losses early on, I have had very good success more recently by building up the affected beds as soon as possible with a mixture of new topsoil and leaf mulch, covering to about an inch above the rhizome, then tamping it down level with the rhizome and letting rain and weather do the rest. It's easier to do than it may sound, and your irises will be happier than pretending they are Banyan trees, particularly when they have blooms to support. -- Griff 

Zone 7 along the tidal Potomac near Mount Vernon, in Virginia
----- Original Message ----- From: "christian foster" <flatnflashy@yahoo.com> 
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: [iris] CULT: anticipation



Well, Griff,

 I guess I'll chime in here.
I've cleared the seedling beds, except the space I need for this spring's line outs. I've been very impressed with some of the seedlings that were lined out late last spring. Several that were lined out at barely two leaves two inches high held in there, exactly there. Seems like they don't like all the water that has come this winter and early spring- I keep finding "another one" that is holding on by just an inch or so of one root while the rest of the plant 'waves' in the wind.
Several of the 05 and 06 line outs are also standing on tiptoes... a few may even bloom from their tiptoes. In general they all seem to be happy and healthy even if their roots look more like the roots of a Banyan tree.
I can hardly stand the weather still being cold... I'm getting impatient to get the last of the 06 seedlings lined out. But, ah well, I'ld rather it stay cold and damp all the way through March and April than have the drought again. At the very least I need the damp to be able to dig more beds- don't want to fight sun baked red clay.
Hoping many more new seedlings bloom this spring... can't wait to take pictures. 

 christian


"J. Griffin Crump" <jgcrump@cox.net> wrote:
Easter greetings to all of you who celebrate the day. It's a sunny, if still 
cold day here on the East coast. Even though the feast is early this year,
I'm fortunate to have the season's pre-hybridizing work done at this point -- weeding, grooming, fertilizing, and weed and pest prevention. Rains fell at the needed times except for the last few days, so yesterday was spent watering 
in the applications on the home gardens. The more distant seedling plots,
where water isn't available till April 1, will probably just have to fight the 
new weeds on their own, rather than be Preened again. (One times the
application when rain is forecast, but if the forecast isn't borne out --
bad luck!)

So, today I've had the luxury of removing the pine straw from the seedling
pots to see what's up. I'd been a bit concerned, because peeks under the
mulch had shown nothing as late as a week ago, while a friend whose garden is 
at a higher elevation already had seedlings up a couple of inches by then.
(His pots were set against a south-facing wall.) I probably shouldn't have
been concerned, because my records from 2006 and 2007 show germination
starting no earlier than March 28 here. But yes, today the sprouts are up -- 
a week ahead of last year! And, more so than in previous years, there is a
very strong pattern of the SDB and IB crosses sprouting, while the TBs lag
behind. (Probably just more noticeable because I'm planting more of them.)
Of those TB sprouts that ARE showing, most have rebloom heritage. Now,
satisfied that germination is showing in some highly-desired crosses, I can go 
back to hoping there won't be more germination than there is space for
planting.

In the 3-year-old seedling beds, a couple of reblooming SDBs' fans are
beginning to swell. I'm also keeping an eye on a couple of TB seedlings that remained evergreen during the winter. Last year, I marked several clumps that stayed tall, if not evergreen, during the winter, but they didn't perform any 
differently in the spring than the rest.
I hope all of our Missourians and anyone else who received so much rain are 
all ok. -- Griff

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS




---------------------------------
Never miss a thing.   Make Yahoo your homepage.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index