RE: CULT: BEGINNER STILL - DWARF/DUTCH IRIS HELP NEEDED

Hi Susan,
 
Go ahead and plant them.  I bought some reticulatas and dutch irises a
couple of weeks ago and got them planted last weekend.
 
These are indeed irises.  Irises may be bulbous or rhizomatous.  The
reticulatas will bloom end of May and the dutch irises should bloom mid to
end June.  I find that neither of these are very hardy.  Some will come back
the following year and all will be gone within five years.
 
I bought 100 reticulatas one year, about half returned the following year
and about a dozen the third year.  Only three or four survived to five
years.
 
For the dutch irises, I had 50 three years ago and only 2 bloomed last year.
 
They all bloom the first year.
 
Have fun planting.


Maureen 
Ottawa, Ontario (zone 4) 

 
Here is today's problem.  A few days ago I drove to a city two hours 
south of where we live and yielded to the impulse to drop into the 
old Farmer's Co-op store I used to frequent when I used to have 
horses.  They have a great nursery section, and prices were low (yes, 
I know the prices are low because they are selling off stock, but 
sometimes I get lucky with end of season plants).  I bought a dozen 
winter mums for fall colour.  And about 150 crocus (croci) mainly in 
yellows with some white and purple.  But, more to the point, I bought 
some packages of bulbs as follows:
    Dwarf Iris - Danfordiae - they are yellow and only grow to 5" - 
spring flowering
    Dutch Iris - Purple Sensation - purple with yellow centres - 8" - 
spring flowering
    Dutch Iris - Silvery Beauty - a pale mauve shading to white to 
yellow centre = 8" spring flowering.

Now, the "bulbs" don't look like normal iris rhizomes, more like 
crocus bulbs.  Are these really iris?

The package says plant September to December for spring flowering.  
But I am hearing so much about iris being killed due to late planting 
or not an opportunity to put down roots before frost comes, that I 
wonder if I should plant at all, or should I wait and plant in the 
spring (which they say will give me an August to September flowering.

Lots of people talk about putting iris in pots.  I am not familiar 
with this practice.  Why do you do it?  You plant in pots and then 
put the pots in the ground.  Why?     Could I put these 
little "bulbs" in pots and store them in a cool/dark place through 
the winter, and then put them out first thing in spring?   or could I 
bring them out to the light in the late winter and allow them to 
begin to grow and then plant them in the garden when the ground warms 
in the spring?

Knowing how great you folks are, I expect lots of advice.  I would 
particularly ask those folks living in New Hampshire (your winters 
sound as cold as ours) and the lady in Minnesota as well as people 
living up towards Ottawa - I refer to you because you have written to 
me before and your climate sounds similar.  It snowed last weekend 
(our Thanksgiving) but this week it is in the 60'sF, damp fall 
weather with occasional hours of brilliant blue sky, bright sun, and 
gorgeous yellow orange leaves.  We're soaking up as much sunshine as 
we can get, anticipating the coming winter.  It may not really snow 
for a month or so, but the nights can have touches of frost.

The nice is that by the weekend when I have a chance to get out in my 
garden, I know I will have wheelbarrow loads full of advice.  thanks.

Susan Heder
20 miles north and inland from Parry Sound, Ontario.





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