Re: Cult:tearing issue
- Subject: Re: Cult:tearing issue
- From: c* s*
- Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 15:49:47 -0600
From: celia storey <storey@aristotle.net>
Janet in S.Ca. asks:
>Cooley's iris instructions do recommend gently pulling the leaf off.
>Others say no way, trim down to half inch or less. But doesn't that leave
>a tiny place for bugs to hide?
> also, fellow mild winter members may know about this: since we can still
>experience sunny 50 or above temps into December, how long will new shoots
>emerge. Just as I thought Dracula's Shadow was only going to offer me three
>increases, I noticed another tiny fan peeking out of the soil!
>
Here in Arkansas, we can and do experience 80-degree days in December! My
irises put on offsets like gangbusters during this unusually warm October;
they're still growing some here in erratically nippy November, and I expect
to see sporadic growth until January, when we typically get our annual
chills. (Of course, that's not guaranteed. There's often a false spring at
the end of January, followed by fierce ice in February.)
All of that to say my experience may not apply to your situation. But I
would expect sporadic growth of shoots most of the winter. Or maybe not. <g>
As for the question of cutting away leaves or yanking them away, I have
been taught that yanking is preferred. As you suggest, cutting makes hidey
holes for insects.
But one should not "tear away" a leaf. It should separate easily. If you
have to tear, that means the base of the fan has not developed the (help me
on this) scission (sp?) cells that in effect close off the rhizome's access
to the leaf. The rhizome routinely sloughs its spent leaves. As I
understand it, when a leaf is worn out, a line of special cells appear at
its base that help the leaf separate while sealing off the rhizome.
If you have to tear, you are ripping through active cells through which the
iris' precious bodily fluids pass, and infection could enter the rhizome
through those wounds.
celia
s*@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas, USDA Zone 7b
-----------------------------------
257 feet above sea level,
average rainfall about 50 inches (more than 60" in '97)
average relative humidity (at 6 a.m.) 84%.
moderate winters, hot summers ... but lots of seesaw action in all seasons
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