Re: please help an enthused newcomer

>Greetings from Saint Paul, Minnesota, where two of four 
>days this week have been above 90 degrees (F) and broken 
>records from the 1930s.

Holy Moly!  90+ already down in the Cities???  I'm 200 miles north 
between Grand Rapids and Bemidji, and it hasn't gotten past mid-70's here 
yet.  You just feel free to keep that heat down there!
>
>I had my first dwarf (lil red devil?) open Tuesday, and 
>have about 30 blooms of various TB and antique types on the 
>verge of opening this week or next

My first SDB opened Tuesday as well, but there are no signs of 
pregnancies on any of the TBs yet.

>First: In one bed of four relatively healty rhizomes, 
>(all of which had respectable fans last year, but 
>only one stalk/2 blooms) three are struggling to put 
>up half-size fans of brownish leaves.
>The one (I think) that flowered last year looks fine, but 
>these off-colored leaves are frightening..? They do not seem
>"dry" or "brittle" but I have not enough experience to know 
>whether lack of water is the problem.

Check your rhizomes.  If soft and mushy, you have bacterial soft rot.  If 
firm, dig them up and check the roots, and I'll bet you'll find the roots 
have died.  I don't know what causes it or whether it is a sort of 
northern "scorch", but you might search the archives for "scorch" and see 
what sort of remedies folks have tried to combat it. I have had similar 
problems with a few irises in my garden, and I generally dig them up, 
give them a bleach solution soak, lay them in the sun for a few weeks, 
and pot them up to see what happens.  I buried one of them last year 
about 4-6" deep in the iris bed, and to my extreme amazement it actually 
survived and is now actively growing above ground again! I'd have bet 
good money I'd never see that one again.

>I LOVE the practice of subject tagging, but is there
>a sort of "glossary" of terms/abbreviations available?

You should have received a welcome message with all the subject tags when 
you joined iris-talk.  If not, search the archives for "subject tags", 
and I'm sure you'll find them there.

Welcome to the list, fellow Minnesotan!

Laurie
zone 3b northern MN

 

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