Re: TB: Rebloom

From: Linda Mann <lmann@icx.net>

I wrote:
> >Lloyd Z, I know you are probably sick of hearing me thank you for
> >HARVEST OF MEMORIES, but zowie, that plant loves it here!  

And Lloyd Zurbrigg ("daddy" of IMMORTALITY and HARVEST OF MEMORIES)
replied 
> Dear Linda:  No, I am always happy to hear that one of my iris has done
> well.... But
> I do not know why something like HARVEST OF MEMORIES  did not also become
> popular. 

Congrats on the popularity wins!  IMMORTALITY is working it's way
towards the top of my popularity poll also, now that I've discovered its
need for alfalfa here.  

I think HARVEST OF MEMORIES is another one of those quirky ones - Walter
says it blooms so late in Mississippi for him that it gets frozen every
fall before blooming and it has had the molliegrubs in Julie Allen's
garden in middle Tennessee and has nearly disappeared.  Some others on
the list last year said it tends to have gooseneck stalks.  The clump
that is in my new and coddled rebloomer bed is just beginning to show
color with a new stalk just showing itself yesterday, while the two
clumps out in the gravelly killing fields that got fried all summer have
been blooming away for a month and are about finished.  I did give both
clumps a big drink of water once or twice during July and August.

> Can you or anyone tell me what to do to get a good showing of rebloom next fall? 

I wish!  The 2 liter bottles of ice that I tried putting around the
clump of HARVEST OF MEMORIES in August didn't cool the soil temperature
at all - it was just too hot.  I have ordered 4 soil thermometers and
plan to monitor soil temps next to various clumps of HOM next summer to
see if I can figure out some pattern of bloomstalk initiation in
relation to temperature, plus experiment with temperatures under various
(forbidden!) mulches.  I may bury a potato or a sacrificial rhizome to
monitor temperature inside the rhizome.  I suspect that the gravelly
soil may cool off more quickly than the finer rebloomer bed soil and
being more in the open, may also have cooled more on the slightly cooler
evenings.  It got "down" to 60oF one night in August, about a month
before stalks were up.

Linda Mann east Tennessee USA
due for hard freeze this week - planning on digging all clumps of irises
with stalks showing and bringing them indoors to enjoy!  Or maybe build
little tents for them out of Reemay, rebar, and plastic pipe like I did
last year.



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