Re: CULT: Trashing Irises
- Subject: Re: CULT: Trashing Irises
- From: m*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 13:34:40 EDT
> Re: Re: Re: CULT: Trashing Irises
>
I have some different thoughts about trashing iris. I too have limited
space, and for that reason have decided not to get into the race for the
biggest, best, reddest, most vigorous, multibranched, interesting, new TB
iris with flounces, but to focus on the variety of species I can grow on my
oak shaded 6/10 acre.
My interest in iris dates back to about 1945 when some eccentric
maiden cousins gave me a start of some of the best TB cultivars available at
that time, and now they are called "historic." When I went away to college,
my garden was neglected and then cannibalized.
Unable to grow iris for 50 years, I started a new garden in 1999.
I''ve been able to rescue some of those old iris from an aunt's garden and
have had fun discovering what I have.
When I culled my garden after the first year, I had no shortage of
people who were happy to take them, people who did not have the money nor
motivation to buy the new and latest, but were interested in growing some
iris.
I can fully appreciate why a commercial grower would want to protect
her stock, and not have her rejects grown and attributed to her when they
were not up to the hybirdizer's standard. But it would seem to me that an
amateur grower might want to encourage other's interest by sharing some
stock. What does not succeed in one microclimate might very well succeed in
another.
As far as genetic factors are of concern, even a failed seedling does
not have bad genes, but only an unfortunate combination of genes. By analogy,
so called pure bred dogs are often at a genetic dead end. This is the reason
the Border Collie association in Britain has resisted restrictions on
bringing in fresh genetic input to the breeding lines of working dogs, rather
than restricting breeding to so called pure lines. I found my "Maxwell
McDog," trashed and in danger of death at the local pound. Now that he has
grown to be 80 pounds, he still looks like and acts like a Border Collie, and
the vet calls him a giant Border Collie. I would never trade him for one with
"papers," a registered so called "pure bred" dog.
For the love of iris, I believe those of us who are not commercial
growers would do well to offer our rejects, unless they are diseased, to
others who might want to try them locally, or to anyone who will pay the
postage to take them off our hands and try them in another climate.
Personally, I don't want them. I've got more seedling from 1999 and
2000 SIGNA seed, and some seed several of you have sent me, than I have room
for. I am giving the excess seedlings to neighbors. I am discovering that I
am developing iris lovers from passersby who admire my meager new beginnings.
So before I destroyed a plant because it wouldn't grow in my shade, I'd at
least offer it to someone who can provide some sun.
James Harrison,
Asheville, NC
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