Re: Rebloomer (?) HANDS UP

Hello from Barb, finally! Comments follow:



LMann76543@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 96-09-27 10:50:27 EDT, you write:
> 
> >
> >One of my summer-bought irises is Monty Byers' Hands Up.... does anyone
> raise it, and does it rebloom for you? >>
> 
> It was given to me when I first joined AIS - bloomed once, and has since been
> swallowed by the fescue.  I just moved some of it to my 'corn rows' this
> summer - can't tell you about re-bloom, but it seems to be a 'survivor' here.
>  However, its infrequent bloom here (especially with Lloyd's comment about it
> being tender) may mean it will have problems in frost holler.

Sorry I missed Lloyd's comment, must have slipped through the cracks.
I just went through Friendship's catalog more thoroughly, and found 
many, many Byers rebloomers. HANDS UP is in Larry's Harder's catalog 
this year, but not as a rebloomer. So I will look forward to seeing its 
Spring bloom, anyway!  
> 
> About those raised beds and pots - my experience has been that you may have
> irises starting growth too early for your frost holler.  The raised beds and
> pots warm up faster, which may initiate growth early enough to give you even
> more frost damage.  For early bloomers, that can be enough aournd here in
> March to prevent bloom entirely - they don't even try.

I do have some early bloomers. And last March it got down to 2 above one 
day early in the month!  We are planning to sink our pots into the 
ground or pile dirt around them before winter, tho. I hadn't remembered 
that when I wrote that.

  Covering everything
> with plant bed covers (Reemay (sp?) or whatever they use nowadays for tobacco
> beds) during every freeze below 20o after jonquils are growing (trying to
> think of a good indicator for Missouri....) or a month or two before last
> frost works well, but is a nuisance. 

Could you explain more about the 20 degree freeze point for iris? Does 
it kill the bloomstalk, AND damage the foliage? I don't plan to cover 
anything this Fall, as I don't have any rebloom, but will be looking 
very carefully at everything come Spring.  (not that I'm not now--I'm 
probably the only one on the List who looks at every iris she has and 
encourages it to grow!  A couple of them have 5 and 6 new fans since 
their August planting! Larry Doucette's 16 are doing fine, too!

I would love to get some Reemay. One of our sons works at a nursery 
warehouse, and that's why we can get so many pots very reasonable. The 
Reemay is a 30 pound 148 foot by 300 foot roll!  So we are wondering 
whether we want a quarter of an acre of Reemay (good price, tho)! Our 
future plans are to have a greenhouse, tho, for sure. I can hardly wait!

 I used to do it, now I stick with the
> later bloomers.  Some of the earlier bloomers seem to be able to take the
> cold better than others, but I have tried unsuccessfully to figure out how to
> find them.  Nobody seems to keep track of such things.

This is a great point.  People keep track of everything else concerning 
growing.  Let's you and I and others on the list keep track, shall we?
Maybe my husband and I find keeping records more fun than others do, 
tho!  Since this is our first year for iris, we'll be starting brand-new 
squeaky-clean!  Awesome!
> 
> Gunnar and other friends 'across the great water' as my old neighbor used to
> call the Atlantic Ocean - nowadays - hmm, sounds like one of those
> mountain/Old English concoctions - probably from 'now on these days' . ??
> Could be!  I have some English books that might have that word in them.

Cheers, Barb, finally getting back to you!
ljohnson@cland.net  And we're only a quarter of a mile from the river, I 
just found out, not half a mile!  No frost yet, but tomorrow morning, 
Friday, will probably be The Day.
>
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