Re: TB:Dykes Medal

>> >(Thinking about the Dykes and the chances for
>> >RHONDA FLEMING, CLARENCE,  and MESMERIZER.   Which one really
>> >qualifies? Only the Shadow knows).

I only grow CLARENCE.  After three years it bloomed this year.  Pretty
blooms, but the stalks topped out at about 24 inches and almost half the
blooms were distorted by having extra parts or missing parts.  It has not
shown signs of having vigorous growth at this point.  But I'm not giving up
even though this was a banner year for bloom production on most of the
things I grow.  I find some do well some years, while others do not.  Same
with the rot syndrome.  This year I've had no rot at all in spite of weeks
of continuous wet, damp and mostly cool weather.  Leaf spot has been a
plague though and that's something I seldom have to contend with in our
climate.  Heat and low humidity seem to kill it before it gets started.
Because it hasn't been a problem, I waited to long to commence battle.  I
think I lost.  A little experience gained, I hope.  MALAGUENA has performed
like CLARENCE here in the past.  But you should have seen it this year!
Loaded with blooms and stalks above waist high.  So I think the trouble with
performance and rot issues is often finding, or getting from sheer luck, the
conditions that don't lend themselves to the problems.  If you live in a
climate that is variable, sometimes from week to week, but certainly from
season to season, I doubt the hybridizer or iris lives that meet those
requirements consistantly.  And how would they find out?  By the time a
plant was grown under all the conditions, it would be historic
chronologically.  Obvious weak plants in an area may never have been tested
over enough seasons in that area for the information to be available.  And I
doubt either hybridizers or growers are patient enough to wait that long to
either get them off their hands (the hybridizers) or in their hands (the
growers).

An opinion.

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7, USA


 

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