Re: CULT: rhizome shape

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> I've always found that the "elephant trunk" nose arises when a new
> rhizome grows from a deeply planted or inadvertantly buried one.  The
> new increase grows rapidly to the surface as a thin stem, then expands
> out when it gets near the top.  So maybe this is not the same
> phenomenon Walter is referring to, because to have this trunk-like
> part on the older section of the rhizome "reaching for water" would
> mean it was growing in reverse.
> 
> My experience has been that the elongate, knobbly rhizomes are
> produced in any soil when a rhizome grows for several years without
> blooming or increasing.
> 
> Bill Shear
> Department of Biology
> Hampden-Sydney College

	In remembering the rhizomes I used to get from Keppel and 
Melrose, it was theirs that would have increase on the end of the 
'elephant trunks'.  

	Schreiner's would have the 'trunk,' but theirs did not show the 
increase, and I am thinking that they were shaped thusly because 
of the fact that they bury their rhizomes for winter.  I don't think M 
& K would have buried their rhizomes for winter.  Schreiner's 
culture was written up several years ago in an AIS Bulletin.

	I cannot remember M or K describing their planting procedures.

	Back to the elongated, knobby rhizomes.  Peggy Williams' 
garden is in the black gumbo of northeast Ft. Worth.  Her culture
was superb, and I don't know how many QOS's she had or how 
many silver medals she won, yet her rhizomes resembled ginger 
roots or Jerusalem artichokes.  She attributed the shape to the 
black gumbo. 

    I planted irises at my brother's place in the same type of soil as 
Peggy's.   When dug, the increases never resembled what I 
planted because my own garden was blessed with sandy loam.

	Walter Moores
	Enid Lake, MS 7/8 USA
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