Re: Rocky Mtn Iris

Rocky Mountain Iris is a common name sometimes used for i. missouriensis, which grows wild in the mtns. of Colorado.  WORLD OF IRIS has material on it, as do several other books.  It is slow to germinate.  Two years ago a friend in CO sent me a package of seed, some of which I planted in a small flat in the spring, the rest being put into the refrigerator.  In the flat, nothing grew.  After several weeks I planted some of the refrigerated seed in a flat, and by the end of the summer a few had germinated.  I buried the flat in the ground for the winter, having mulched it well.  The other seeds I had put in a pot, set outside under a tree and, except for an occasional watering, forgot all about.  I didn't do anything with it in the winter.  In the spring of 1998, the plants in the mulched flat came up and grew, but so did a large number of plants in the neglected pot.  I let both grow all last summer, giving water but little else, and in the winter I buried both in the garden again.   This spring I intend to set out what there were growing in both containers, but now I find that there are new seeds still sprouting for the first time in both containers.  Meanwhile, the root systems on the older plants are wonderful, so I still am going to set them out in the ground.  Haven't figured out quite how to get the bigger ones out without harming some of the new, tiny ones.  But all this illustrates the slowness of germination to which I referred earlier. 
    Perhaps this anecdotal account will be of some use to the writer of the paper, too.
Arnold
 
Arnold & Carol Koekkoek
38 7th Street, NE
Sioux Center, IA 51250
e-mail  k*@mtcnet.net
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