Re: HYB: CULT: another tale from iris hell

Just for truth in discussion, I went out to count how many pots of seedlings I am carrying over this winter: ~120 mostly 3 gallon pots each containing 1 to 15 or so seedlings.
Some were late (i.e., outdoor 'the usual way') germinants from this spring; a few were the few survivors from some cross set out last fall that were just about eradicated by the late spring freeze this year; some just didn't get into the ground before the heat and drought drove me indoors this summer; some were still in their 4 inch germination pots a couple of months ago when it finally cooled off enough to work outdoors again. Some of the last group are the really small ones.
Griff, I use wire fence 'half rounds' as a frame over pots & to keep out squirrels when I only have a dozen or so pots. I can cover the frames with Reemay type plant bed covers, which comes in 4 ft widths & works well as a mini cold frame. Usually I'm covering 4 inch, 8 inch 'mum' type, or occasionally quart size pots.
I've never had this quantity of plants and big pots to deal with in cold weather before now. Resulting from a combination of more than 100 crosses those two spectacular bloom & pod years in a row (2005 & 2006) and disastrous weather this year.
Now that it seems to finally be raining off and on (not much, still 14 inches below average), I guess I can move these farther away from the garden hose and cover them in a long tunnel of wire half rounds and Reemay for the winter. They are pretty much packed pot to pot in the side yard now, with barely room to climb thru them to get to the weeds. 

As I went out to count pots, 6 more squirrels took to the woods!
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Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.DiscoverET.org/etis>
Region 7, Kentucky-Tennessee <http://www.aisregion7.org>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
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