Re: CUL: Doing Everything Wrong
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: CUL: Doing Everything Wrong
- From: B* C* <r*@neptune.on.ca>
- Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 10:25:40 -0600 (MDT)
Irisborer wrote:
> As I walk through my iris beds where I've done everything right.... and there
> are only labels where irises should be. I ponder those folks who don't grow
> their irises correctly - yet have far better luck than I do!! In fact, some
> folks don't even KNOW that you can't dig up irises when they're in bloom - and
> so they do it and the earth does NOT stop spinning.
>
> So..... I proclaim as follows. In one bed, I intend to do everything wrong.
> I will dig the irises when it suits me - rather than at the right time (Dana
> Borglum ONLY digs during bloom).
>
> I will mulch bearded irises
>
> I will fertilize with a balanced fertilizer
>
> I will let rot alone
>
> I will either learn that not every iris rule is written in stone - or I will
> have a whole new bed for planting NEW irises (:
>
Well Kathy, not that I am holding my beds out as a shining example of iris
cultivation, but I do mulch my bearded iris- a couple of inches deep. I have
never bothered looking for rot or iris borer. I fertilize with standard 30-30-30
perennial fertilizer-because my iris are interplanted with all sorts of other
perennials and I even have some grass growing in the beds and every year I get an
excellent crop of blooms from my tall beardeds. Perhaps the fact that my soil is
well drained sandy loam, and my irises are varieties that were planted in the late
40's and early '50's and have been there ever since. Maybe only the strong have
survived.
Bob Campbell
> .
