Re: CULT: # cultivars here, by decade
- Subject: Re: CULT: # cultivars here, by decade
- From: Linda Mann l*@volfirst.net
- Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 13:52:53 -0400
<Do you also have data on the total number from each decade that you
attempted to grow? If so a survival rate by decade of introduction could
be calculated.>
I don't have it in a database that would make it easy to do. And it
wouldn't be very helpful, because of changes/improvements? in the way I
get 'new' cultivars.
I first started collecting in the 1970s, and for several years,
everything I got came from either Wilds (Missouri) or Rancho de la Flor
de Lis (New Mexico?). I ordered specific cultivars by description
without any awareness of pedigrees.
Gradually, I started ordering from other places, especially Cottage
Gardens, where I got some kind help from Jim McWhirter (originally from
Tennessee, ran away to iris heaven in California) who told me about the
checklists which helped me start avoiding the early bloomers that are so
often badly damaged and rot prone here.
I didn't understand the (potential?) significance of pedigrees in
selecting new cultivars to try until this list (rather its predecessors)
hit cyberspace in 1996. At the same time, I've started asking here
about performance of various cultivars, folks here tell me about and/or
swap/give me strong growers, I learn about a few at each winter potluck
of Region 7, read between the lines in catalogs ('healthy' is more what
I want instead of 'vigorous', which often just means it grows fast if
it's alive)
My guess is that I ordered a lot of older cultivars, with random
susceptibility to rot, until the 1990s. Since then, I don't usually buy
older cultivars unless I'm trying to confirm an ID on something that
does exceptionally well here, or somebody highly recommends it, or out
of curiosity about an ancestral cultivar that was used in a lot of
breeding lines. Or fall in love with a photo <g>.
I do love the big, blousy, general form of many of the 60s & 70s irises,
but the hafts tend to be too narrow, substance & branching poor, &
unless I don't have anything with those genes that does really well in a
more modern iris, I won't usually go for the older one.
-
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
Tennessee Whooping Crane Walkathon:
<http://www.whoopingcranesovertn.org>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
iris-talk/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
iris-photos/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
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