Re: CULT: Reversion To White
- Subject: Re: CULT: Reversion To White
- From: I*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 05:01:17 EST
From: Irisborer@aol.com
In a message dated 3/30/1999 12:17:17 AM Eastern Standard Time,
jijones@ix.netcom.com writes:
<< Our question is-- Is it possible for the award
winning flowers to go back to the old white ones. We have not put any
white ones in the beds with the colored ones. >>
Hi John:
We get this question frequently enough when we work at outreach events.
People believe that irises are like roses... that they are grafted somehow
onto rootstock, and can - therefore - revert.
I would suggest that there was probably an atom of the 'old white iris' left
in the bed where the Springhill irises were planted, and as bloom declined in
the overcrowded irises, the old white diploids came shining through.
The solution is not for the faint of heart..... first the whites must be dug
out.... the others divided and soft or spent rhizomes dumped - soil improved
with alfalfa and bonemeal and compost and then replanted.
Or.... we could tell her that growing daylilies leeches all the color out of
irises (:
Kathyguest.... with too much coffee in E. Aurora, NY
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