Springhill revisited
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Springhill revisited
- From: "* B* <j*@infinet.com>
- Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 20:27:51 -0700 (MST)
I live close to Springhill Nurseries. I do not have experience with any of
their plants except daylilies and iris, but I can tell you the following:
They do not get their bearded iris in the showroom until mid-September, and
first frost happens here arounf 4 weeks later.
The bearded iris are kept moist, in plastic bags, and refrigerated below 40
degrees at night until time to replenish the bins in the showroom. I
mentioned this to the garden center manager, and his reply was that I
apparently did not know much about the culture of bearded iris.
Of the 9 "bargains" I bought there a couple of years back, many started to
rot before frost, and
when they bloomed, some were not correctly labeled.
They had "Knight Ruler" labeled on rhizomes, with a picture of a black
iris. The picture was not of "Night Ruler", but looked much closer to
Superstition. I am sure the misspelling was to sidestep the issue of what
the plant really was.
An even larger problem with these practices is the result when these plants
have grown for you for a while. They eventually need divided, and end up
going to other iris growers and are sold at iris sales for clubs. The error
keeps repeating in geometric fashion.
In essence, Springhill may be fine if you buy plants and are not concerned
with getting the correct cultivar. If having a correctly labeled plant is
important, you will greatly increase your odds by going to the specialists.
John Bruce
jbruce@infinet.com
1VP Miami Valley Iris Society
AIS Region 6 / SW OH Zone5
