New Member
Good morning irisarians - This is my first post and an introduction. My name
is Barbara Null and I live in East Texas almost exactly halfway between
Shreveport, LA and Dallas, TX. Our soil and weather conditions are more similar to
the Shreveport area as this is the Piney Woods area of Texas. Our soil is
slightly acidic and my little acre is red clay with some iron ore thrown in. I
have amended over the years with at least 1500 bags of leaves and 20 pickup
loads of horse or cow manure plus other compost odds and ends. The soil is
still heavy but drains pretty good. I grow all kinds of iris and am most
interested in hybridizing PCI that will acclimate to this area. I have had moderate
success. I have quite a lot of trouble with TB rotting and have tried this and
that and am about to abandon raised beds as I notice that iris that I just
"stick in the ground" seem to do better. Also iris that I don't tend as much
tend to get a covering of pine needles and this seems to help so next summer I
am going to experiment with a thin covering of pine straw. Also I am going to
experiment with watering the TB a little more. Sure would like to communicate
with people growing iris in heavy clay soils, hot as hedouble toothpick
summers and high humidity.
Barbara Null
Tyler, TX - zone 7b/8a
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