Re: i. cristata
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: i. cristata
- From: b*@tiger.hsc.edu (Bill Shear)
- Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 12:28:59 -0700 (MST)
Some experiences with cristata:
The best time to move or divide cristata seems to be just after bloom is
finished. The roots are not very deep and few in number. I prefer to move
"sods" of rhizomes complete with soil and replant them in a shallow
excavation elsewhere. Use lots of leafmould in the soil, and as a light
mulch. One trick I found useful for an instant effect is to collect
individual rhizomes from clumps just after blooming and plant them close
together in a tray (like the plastic trays used for carrying 4-paks, or a
seed flat) and let them get established. Then the whole tray can be
planted in a shallow scrape for an instant clump effect the next spring.
I find it can take a surprising amount of sun, and that the more sun, the
more bloom. Clumps with 4-6 hours of morning sun are literally sheets of
blue in the spring.
The white variety often seems a weaker grower. Niche Gardens claims the
white they sell is very vigorous, but my try with it last year did not
work. It died. I've ordered it again this year.
I have not been very successful with lacustris. It lives a few years,
blooms sparsely, then dies out. Perhaps summers are too hot.
On the other end of the scale, hard winters seem to do away with gracilipes
(for my money, a much more elegant garden flower than cristata).
Verna, not a crested iris, likes acid soil and does wonderfully well
(clumps down for 6-8 years without disturbance) among azaleas under pines.
Best wishes, Bill
___________________
William A. Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943 USA
phone (804) 223-6172
FAX (804) 223-6374
