Re: Iris mulching
- To: i*@rt66.com
- Subject: Re: Iris mulching
- From: J* W* <W*@muohio.edu>
- Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 17:44:07 -0400 (EDT)
- Date-warning: Date header was inserted by po.muohio.edu
>Are you suppose to mulch irises? I did use my leaves on my beardless irise=
>s but
>I didn't use them on my bearded irises. Should I have done this?
>
>suzette guay
>region 4
>zone 7
>baltimore, maryland
**
When I lived in Delaware, an area real similar to yours, we typically
didn't do any mulching of our beardeds. Occasionally we'd have one,
especially a newly planted one, thrown out of the ground by
freeze/thaw cycles, but a few well-placed bricks seemed to make
them behave pretty well. Here in SW Ohio, one zone away, about half
of the people use some kind of mulch. I'm using straw (You can probably
get salt hay.) on my newly planted ones, and letting the veterans that
did ok last year go without. The idea is that it should even out
the temperature swings, and I'll probably remove the stuff in March.
I picked a house here with enough pine trees to make lots of needles to
mulch my beardless, and they pretty much go that way year-round,
with a little replenishing here and there. The pine needles are supposed
to help keep the soil acid, which is an ongoing task in this area
for things like JIs. --Jim
Jim Wilson, Miami Valley Iris Society, Oxford, OH 45056, wilsonjh@muohio.edu
zone 6, AIS garden judge, growing SIB, medians, TB, JI, a few SPU and Species
