Re: CULT: and HYB: TB's in general....

>if I plan on spending any $$$ on any of the fancy new 
>introductions, I would strongly consider potting them and moving them 
>indoors as winter approaches so as not to lose them. Same thinking for 
>some other cultivars, so I wouldn't lose everything to our cold, just in 
>case a certain cultivar couldn't handle the weather. That way I could do 
>some very limited hybridizing work as winter approaches, indoors. Depends 
>on what does good in pots, also. :)

Hmm.  If you were going to try this, I would strongly suggest you grow 
those cvs in large pots permanently.  Disturbing iris roots by digging 
and potting every fall, then unpotting and planting every spring may 
result in no blooms at all.  Our growing season is too short to  give 
irises time to settle in and get happy between all those transplants.  
Too many interruptions, I would think.

I'm not sure what sort of hybridizing work you would potentially do with 
potted irises indoors during the winter, unless you're planning on 
working with rebloomers.

>But for the ''goal'', finding what will do good in colder climates and 
>working with them is going to be the key to success for us cold climate 
>irisarians. Then I can work on crossing them to other less climate hardy 
>iris.

I don't believe it's the cold that frequently dooms modern TBs in my 
garden.  It's a variety of factors that combine to overwhelm the poor 
things here - not the least of which is my own relative inexperience.  
Among the challenges irises face in my beds are: deer grazing, deer 
trampling, deer uprooting, compacted clay soil (read "concrete"), 
insufficient sun, short growing season, wild temp swings, weeds, and iris 
borers.  The irises that do best here are the ones that increase quickly 
enough to outgrow soft rot attacks.  If I were hybridizing, I'd 
concentrate on plant vigor and disease/pest resistance moreso than 
cold-hardiness (which I don't see as much of a problem with most cvs).

>Oh, btw, Laurie, maybe you could forward me a list of who has and hasn't 
>made it up there to give me a bit of insider info on which cultivars, 
>TB's, or others, to avoid around here. thanks....

Because of the vast number of variables that are likely to be different 
between your growing conditions and mine, I don't believe a list of my TB 
casualties would necessarily have any validity or usefulness for you.  
There are friends in town to whom I gave irises last year that expired in 
my garden over winter (the irises, not the friends) but bloomed happily 
in theirs this spring.  My survivors, however, are a different matter.  I 
posted several lists of my survivors to the group this spring.  I'll go 
see if I can locate them at Mallorn for you ...

Here you go:
http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/jun02/msg00233.html
http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/aug02/msg00403.html
http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/aug02/msg00427.html

Laurie
 


-----------------
laurief@paulbunyan.net
http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
USDA zone 3b, AHS zone 4 - northern MN
clay soil


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