cult: iris in pots
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: cult: iris in pots
- From: K* B* <k*@baker.cnw.com>
- Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 22:26:10 -0600 (MDT)
Since the discussion about iris in pots has come up, I thought you might
be interested in the results of an "experiment" I ran last fall. In
October, way past the normal time to transplant iris, I bought a couple
of dozen plants from a fellow who was selling his house & intended to
plow up his iris beds. (an almost unbearable thought!) I knew that I would
be looking for iris to put in the master gardener's Discovery Garden this
spring, but had no open place in my yard to put them, so I planted my
newly-acquired iris in wide, shallow pulp pots and in big cardboard
boxes. All were badly overcrowded, but I figured if any survived, that
would be a success. I put one third of the containers up against the
west side of the house, one third on the deck, and one third out in the
open. All were heavily mulched, something I would not normally do. We had
unusually heavy snowfall this past winter, and all but the ones against the
house were buried for quite a while. We had the normal never-ending rains all
spring, and the plants on the deck and in the open were drenched. The
ones against the house stayed dry and grew quite well. Slugs got into the
ones on the deck. Then in early April, the director of the Discovery
Garden told me the space for the iris garden was ready, so just as the
remaining plants were putting up bud stalks, I hauled them out to their
new home, took them out of their pots & planted them. Much to my
surprise, nearly every one of the surviving plants bloomed! To my way of
thinking, this is practically a case study in how not to treat iris, and
a tribute to their ability to survive the most dreadful circumstances.
(I kept the slug-demolished plants at home, and replanted the rhizomes in
new containers, even though none showed any sign of growth, and put
them up against the house where they would dry out. Now, a month
later, new leaves have come up on half a dozen of them. A small miracle.)
So, I think where iris are concerned, nothing is impossible!
Kay Berg (kberg@baker.cnw.com)
in the Skagit Valley, Washington State
AIS Region 13
