Re: Pot culture for Japanese Iris--advice for a beginner
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Pot culture for Japanese Iris--advice for a beginner
- From: D*@aol.com
- Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 08:17:12 -0700 (MST)
In a message dated 97-03-02 11:37:54 EST, Heather wrote:
<< For instance, what kind of
pot should she buy? What kind of soil? Can the irises be taken inside as
houseplants or should they spend all year on the balcony? I read in
McEwan's Japanese Iris book that you need to submerge your pots in water,
and he suggested using a child's swimming pool. Does anyone have a good,
balcony-sized alternative to suggest? >>
Hello Heather! I recently came across an article in an old AIS Bulletin by
the noted JI hybridizer Adolph Vogt which addresses this subject.
He recommended using #400 plastic pots (about 7 and a half inches at the
top). Fill with one inch of peat moss on the bottom (pressed down), followed
by one inch of cow manure (get the bagged, sterilized stuff at a garden
store) , followed by one inch of garden soil. Add the iris and fill with
garden soil to within a half inch of the top.
He recommended keeping the water level in the pool at only 1-2 inches. If a
child's wading pool is too large in size, she could try any heavy plastic
container such as a storage bin. Even a dish washing basin would hold 3 or 4
pots, and would be easier to move around. She will have to watch the pH of
the water. Using something like Miracid fertilizer should help.
Winter is a little tougher. Vogt recommended cutting the foliage back to 4
inches after a hard frost, them storing the pots in the ground, in a shallow
depression, with soil pulled around the pots halfway up, and then covering
the whole affair with leaves and some brush to keep the leaves in place.
If your friend could manage some variation of this, I think that would be
preferable to indoor storage. Perhaps she could pack soil in the pool around
the pots. In a mild area such as DE, she might get away with this.
Once I brought inside a new JI that I had paid a bunch of $ for, and which
refused to begin growing in the fall, and it did survive--but the plant has
not returned to a normal growing and blooming cycle yet, tho I think it will
eventually. But I do not think bringing JIs in for the winter works well at
all. They don't get the rest they need.
As for Siberians in pots--I know folks who have left them in pots all winter,
(not intentionally!), and they did survive. I suspect they will not do as
well as JIs with this kind of culture, though.
Hope this helps-good luck!
Dorothy Fingerhood
DFingerhoo@aol.com
Newfield NY
