Re: Saskatoon

Juri asked:
>Where I can find more informations about Saskatoon test garden?
>
Hi Juri,

I guess I didn't word that information very well. It wasn't a test garden in
Saskatoon but rather I sent the plants to be tested in Saskatoon gardens
(private gardens). I had asked the Saskatoon Perennial Society if they would
hand out the rhizomes to their members and ask them to grow them without any
special care other than what they normally do. In return they were to send
me an annual report on the results. I can dig out the list of irises but not
right now. If you were to see my desk you would know why I used the word
"dig". It truly is an archeological venture these days to find the right stuff.

In short, there were 50 TBs ranging from quite old to fairly new plants.
Actually there were 49 plus I. pallida variegata. They all survived and
bloomed with the exception of pallida variegata which died. 

I was led to do this because we had an order from a woman in Calgary which I
acknowledged with a note saying they would be shipped the third week of
July. She phoned back to please have me send them in September which was the
"proper time" for planting. When I asked her why she thought September was
the right time, the answer was that, that was when the rhizomes came into
the garden centers there.

I immediately guessed that was the reason why growers on the prairies had
such difficulty with bearded iris. They were planting dried out rhizomes
which were dug in the summer in Holland and which had suffered all sorts of
indignities along the way and then planted in September. That time of
planting might be as little as two weeks before permanent freeze-up. I have
now decided from reports of our customers that if good fresh rhizomes are
planted in July and allowed to get to work before freeze-up, that they will
tolerate a lot of cold. It is also true that a good deep snow cover helps.
Snow is a wonderful insulator.

In our own garden, the only years when we have any winter kill are the mild
ones with little sow and several freeze-thaw cycles. I believe that it is
freezing and thawing which is the limiting factor and not the temperature.

Hope this helps.

John Montgomery
monashee@bcgrizzly.com
Vernon, BC, Canada       where it is about 0 C and snowing lightly with 51
cm                                 total depth.
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