AW: Iris danfordiae, winogradowii, reticulata

to Ian and all,

In my earlier answer about Iris danfordiae I have said that I have =
myself no experience about growing them so I have explained how the =
bulb-industry grows them. The soil there is=20
sandy but a good sand. They fertilize it and they dig the bulbs for =
whitering the leaves.
I do not know how experiences are with for instance the so called wild =
tulips like Tulipa
kaufmanniana, praestans etc. It is said that you just leave them in the =
soil and they will flower year after year. I wonder whether that is true =
and if it is true..........on what soils.
I know a chap here he has big tulips year after year in the garden. =
Undisturbed and they
flower well for him and they also multiply. But I think that is an =
exception.
Herman in Holland.=20

----------
Van:    Ian Black[SMTP:ianblack@easynet.co.uk]
Verzonden:      vrijdag 1 maart 1996 2:59
Aan:    Multiple recipients of list
Onderwerp:      Iris danfordiae, winogradowii, reticulata

Interested to read the exchanges on  Iris danfordiae.  Like everyone =
else, I
have been exasperated by the way that they break up and cease flowering. =
 I
thought that the following bit from Brian Mathew's "Iris" was relevant.

- "It is an endemic of Turkey and can be found either in the south, in =
the
eastern end of the Taurus mountains, or in the north around Ordu, =
Amasya,
Sivas, Gumushane and Erzincan.  The wild forms I grow are much more
attractive than the commercially available clone.  They have
heather-scented, more richly yellow flowers, with wider spreading falls, =
but
share the annoying habit of producing many tiny bulbs rather than large
flowering-sized ones.  However, the "deep-planting method ..... seems to
work well with I. danfordiae."

What about I. winogradowii?  I have always wanted to grow it, but I have
either forgotten to track down sources in summer, or have been put off =
by
the outrageous price per bulb.  Yet everybody who grows it reports on =
how
easy it is, and that not only does it produce plenty of bulbils, but the
main bulb is not inclined to break up.  Can anyone here report on their
experiences with it?  For anyone wanting a little yellow bulbous Iris, =
it
_seems_ like an obvious solution.

I used to live in Scotland.  Our house was built in the 1770's on a site
that had been used for salt pans over centuries.  In Scotland, the sun's
radiation isn't sufficient to evaporate the brine reliably, so wood was
burned to achieve this.  The underlying soil was sand (we were beside =
the
River Forth), and the garden soil was a very deep mixture of sand and
wood-ash.  I. reticulata grew like a weed, and spread everywhere.  The
patches were very beautiful in spring.  Although it is easy to grow
everywhere, I have never seen it growing quite like this anywhere else.
Maybe this answers an earlier question about how do the Dutch manage to
propagate reticulatas, as the Dutch bulbfields that I have seen are =
always
on very sandy soil.  Any comments from Holland?  It would be interesting =
to
know whether hundreds of I. danfordiae bulbs have to be lifted to =
harvest
each saleable, flowering sized one, or whether by planting deep in sandy
soil, and feeding well, you can get the yield up.

Ian

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Ian Black  ianblack@easynet.co.uk   (Alton, Hampshire, UK)
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