CULT: Fall Report - long

Hello Folks,

Well, I thought I'd comment on irising in the desert as fall
begins to give us a break with some cool nights and not so
hot days, though no rainfall yet.

I'll start with the LAs.  All signs of green life disappeared in the
LA bed by the first week in Sept.  I've continued to water and
the dormancy didn't last long.  Now every clump is putting out
green shoots, no losses since spring (PRESIDENT HEDLEY).
The grasshoppers continue to prefer these over the other irises,
so they are being eaten nearly as fast as they grow.  Their growing
conditions also make my LA bed the one attacked most often by
armadillos.  Combine that with their wandering growth habits and
I won't be surprised to find cultivars mixed up when they bloom.
Still, at the moment, they seem more or less in their designated
areas (I left lots of room).  While I don't expect much bloom next
spring, I continue to be impressed with their innate toughness to
withstand and survive under inhospitable conditions-drought of
major proportions, inability to grow in summer due to defoliation
by grasshoppers and inability to grow in winter due to deer
defoliation.  And still they have survived!  Remarkable, really!

The spurias.  Two weeks ago only two still had any green foliage
showing.  The rest had gone completely dormant in late spring.
I did not give ANY supplemental water until two weeks ago at
which time I soaked it thoroughly.  My indication to start the
supplemental water were some arilbred rhizomes laying on top
of the soil in a clay pot.  These little rhizomes were dropped or
discarded when I reworked an arilbred bed, so are now unknowns.
But that indication of breaking dormancy made me decide to water.
Twice now the bed has been soaked and I'm only waiting for two
spurias to show new growth, since all the rest have green growth
showing.  I think this amazing ability for something seemingly
quite without life to spring back into something living with a promise
of something more to give in the future is one of the reasons I do
the plant thing.  I feel very lucky to only be waiting on two spurias
and am now hopeful they will also come to life.  I was afraid it had
just gotten too hot and too dry this summer.

At the top edge of the spuria bed is a string of arilbreds, mostly
3/4, but a couple of 1/2 breds as well.  These responded faster than
the spurias and considering what they are, are currently the best
looking irises I have.  They certainly look better now than they did at
any time during the growing season last year.  Even one I thought had
died last spring proved to still be alive and putting up green shoots.
I know because I dug the spot to replace it with another and found
the rhizome.  I planted it back.  This bed gets some shade, particularly
from the noon sun and the ABs here have all survived and are looking
better than in the other AB beds.  But those too are putting out.  Not
as fast, but every day there are new fans poking up.  Nearly all the
arilbreds went dormant this year, even many of the quarterbreds.  I
again did not give any supplemental water to the arilbreds and some
of these are located directly in the baking sun.  That soil got HOT this
summer for long periods of time and stayed powder dry.  I will be very
surprised if a few didn't simply cook in those conditions, but at this
point I'm extremely pleased with the numbers I'm seeing for those that
managed to survive.  I'm looking forward to some new ones tomorrow.
At least that's what I think those slight cracks in the clay are indicating.
And here I must mention JEWEL OF OMAR.  If all the arilbreds would
grow like this one!  It bloomed heavily the first three years I had it, but
not at all this year.  I guessed it was too crowded and this weekend I
divided that clump - 35 pretty nice sized rhizomes with fans and I
didn't count all the little developing rhizomes nor all those mother
rhizomes which had bloomed.  I simply gave it the whole end of the
bed.  But I'd like to know why it grows so successfully while many of
the others are on the puny side.  While it is located on the outer edge
of a TB bed, there are other arilbreds located similarly and they do not
exhibit the enthusiastic growth of JO.

And then there were the scorch victims and the swamp TBs.  Now the
swamp TBs were SUPERSIMMON and I think ALPINE CASTLE.  These
were scorch victims which I had baked and then buried.  But I buried
these in the Hosta bed and this summer was proving too much for the
Hostas, so I turned on a soaker hose to a solid ooze more than three
months ago and have never turned it off.  These two TBs have thrived
in what ended up being essentially a constantly wet (more than damp)
swamp-like soil in complete shade and have thrived (at least until this
weekend when they got removed to the TB area which they do not
appreciate, being all droopy at the moment).  Of the rest of the scorch
victims, many tried to grow, but the grasshoppers continually ate the
growth to ground level or below and very few ended up surviving.  I have
only six others besides the swamp TBs which seem to have recovered
and are beginning to grow.  Still, these will all be several years to bloom
size, so unless it is a particularly hard-to-come-by variety it would be
faster just to start over with a new rhizome than to try to salvage the
scorch victim.

The pseudacorus, unlike the LAs, have not proved to be so tough.  The
whole lot are gone, I think.

The Siberians have managed pretty well.  Only two are completely gone.
BUTTER AND SUGAR, which was always a marginal plant finally just
disappeared altogether.  Regretfully so did SEA SHADOWS.  This one
did really well for me in the past, consistently blooming in the spring.
But the drought and several exposures to the heat & sun due to being
dug up by armadillos proved too much for them this summer.  The
'dillos have to answer for this one.

The unguicularis is in the the Hosta bed.  It has thrived this summer.
Never has it reached this point looking so good.  Water is such a
miracle.

The TBs were, and are, the most frustrating for me.  Partly because
some seem to endure anything and my expectations for the rest run
accordingly.  I mean I expect temperament from the arilbreds, but it
just irritates and frustrates me when a TB won't at least manage.
Also, partly because I consider them the mainstay of the garden and
therefore it is a requirement that a sizable number be tough and endure
when conditions aren't their best.  It's for sure not much else is going
to manage if they can't.  My daylilies among a number of other
plants were hit hard the last two years.  There are some TBs in those
holes now, so if scorch, rot etc. start a toll again as it has this year
my frustration level is not likely to get lowered.  I salvaged by potting
some stressed TBs off and on all summer or the losses would have been
higher.  As I've been working the beds, I'm still salvaging some.  Of these
some will be successful, some I'll have been too late.  And yet there
was CRYSTAL CANYON, a variety I simply don't like well enough
to keep around that I gave a huge healthy clump to someone less
selective about what they grow.  So in a year with losses, I was
still able to give some away due to abundant growth.  They'll likely
remain the mainstay because there are those that simply do well
as plants and survive most anything.  But the losses were pretty
high this year, nonetheless.  But they are responding to the cooler
weather now, and I'm gradually giving them a bit more water and
watching for rot on those that have been really stressed by this
past summer.  Hopefully, some will reward me next spring for those
efforts.

Congratulations to anyone who has managed to read this far!

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7, USA where summer day temps along with wind were
back today, but the nights are still cooling off and cooler day temps
predicted toward the end of the week.


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