Re: CULT-COMPOSTING

rimat wrote:
> 
> OK Everybody --
> I am confused.  If you throw a mother rhyzome in the compost heap hoping
> it's going to rot and it ends of sending up lots of increases (my new
> word), why don't you just replant it somewhere so that it can keep
> sending up the increases and you have lots more iris?
> Rima  terra@catskill.net


Rima,

You could but you've lost the identity. I've dumped hundreds in the
pile. As I recall, you said you were new to growing irises. First, you
buy the pretty irises that fit your fancy, by color or whatever. But,---
in your haste, you plant them and forget to mark them as to their name,
etc. Now you have a bunch of unnamed irises, not that that is bad, it's
just a problem when you buy more of the same one because it's just as
pretty now as it was when you first got it. Not everone has photographic
memories, I can't remember what I bought yesterday so I have computer
lists to remind me. Now I have everything named except for the ones that
I originally bought years ago.

Another helpful hint. When you plant your rhizones and you 'mark' them,
don't stop there. Make a layout of what you planted and where. I mark
mine with numbers. There's many reasons for this. Some of the list
members have said the heaving due to frost has removed their markers. I
have another good reason. I had acouple neighborhood girls admiring my
blooming irises two years ago and they decided to go into business
selling 'my irises'. They just pulled them up and carted them off. Their
parents found out and made them bring them back. Of course I didn't know
what they were until the following bloom season, but I had my layout and
which ones they had taken. I matched the blooms to my pictures (I take
pictures of all my irises) and didn't loose the identity of any of them,
just hurt feelings. Also identities are a must if you are going to show
them in a local flower show (I'm just getting into that). A long winded
answer but thought you might have acouple helpful hints and some laughs.

Art Bern  art@gv.net
Grass Valley, CA
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