DUTCH Iris performance

>
>Julie Allen of Tennasee wrote
>
>... have not had good luck with Dutch
>iris.  They ... come up too early and
>then get frozen.
>

Julie,

There are two major strains of Dutch
Iris: (1) those developed over the last
couple of centuries for forcing for the
florist trade  and (2) those that were
developed from cultivars that did not
lend themselves to forcing.

Reputatable bulb companies once
indicated whether or not the DUTCH
Iris they listed were suitable for
forcing or not.  Those not listed for
forcing were by default "garden
Iris".  Within the last couple of
years, I have seen this part of the
description drop off the list in all
but a few catalogs.  McClure &
Zimmerman is one of the last to
provide this very valuable
information.  If a Dutch grower runs
short of garden Iris to fill a
wholesale order, but has plenty of
"forcing" bulbs, you end up with
forcing types in your garden.

At any rate, I suspect your problem
is that you are planting the type of
Dutch that has been specifically
bred to bloom "x-number" of weeks
following planting, regardless of the
weather.

I'm at work (waiting for someone to
show up for a 3:30 meeting they
scheduled with me) - so can't provide
advice except from memory:

Garden varieties:
   Bronze Queen
   Golden Harvest
   Hildegarde
   Ideal
   Mauve Queen
   Professor Blaauw
   White Excelsior

Forcing:
   Van Vliet
   Wedgewood
   White Van Vliet

(My memory is poorer for the
forcing types, because I try not
to buy them.  They bloom only
once in  my mild climate - or
not at all - while the "garden"
types last two to three years
in average garden soil with no
special attention).

____Gigi
gigi.hall.mtv.gtegsc.com
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