Re: CULT: tough iris (was rain) - long

<Linda, Personally I feel that some iris are just hardier and more
                       vigorous (better?) than others and adapt to their
conditions better.
                       Hmmm....now with all your studying and brain
power and ability to sort
                       through detail, is there a common denominator
anywhere? >

I think so too.  Hard to figure out which ones they are tho, without
lots of comparing notes, since some may tolerate Donald's grasshoppers,
some may tolerate Francelle's heat, your drought, my late freezes,
Neil's Tennessee deluge, etc, but not necessarily tolerate all of those
conditions.  I suspect the repair mechanisms are different for the
different types of stress & injury.

So, there may not be a common denominator - as Walter Moores and Tom
Parkhill keep reminding me, the heredity of these "tetraploid" bearded
irises are so scrambled after decades of crosses, with all the complex
ways modifiers interact with the main traits, that unless you are
line-breeding. it's hard (impossible?) to be sure of what traits and/or
genetic make up you'll have.  More than my brain can handle.  Sure
doesn't keep me from trying to figure it out tho!

My theory is that reichenbachii/balkana contributes to toughness in my
garden, but without my own portable garden handidandy DNA tester, who
knows.  I have noticed that a lot of cultivars that are really tough
here have WHOLE CLOTH and/or G.P.Brown rebloomer background.

I've bought all the Brown cultivars I could find, and nearly all of them
grow really well, but can be stingy bloomers (like IMMORTALITY).  WHOLE
CLOTH, on the other hand, is a major wimpy grower here.  Bought two last
year, one died, the other probably will die soon.  Go figure.  On the
other hand, WC may be one of those slow to establish irises that need to
grow really deep roots here to be happy.

<Wasn't it Spring Splendor you said did well for you consistantly?>

More likely AFTERNOON DELIGHT, tho I've noticed that "consistant" is a
relative term here, depending on which climate it decides to be each
year! <g>  So I might have mentioned SPRING SPLENDOR in the past.  It
does do fairly well now and then (tho none are as luxuriant as your
photos!  Envy...)

<I've wondered if the bloom time of the pollen and pod parent makes
makes
 any difference in the vigor of the plant? >

Oh brother, I hadn't even thought about that complication.  My intuition
is that it would only affect vigor of the young seedling, since that is
dependent on food in the seed, plus how 'healthy' the seed is.

<While a very, very early and a very late cross might make a unique
bloom, wouldn't it also have a very narrow range of the successful bloom
season? Or does that matter at all?>

I don't know anything about heredity of bloom season, except that in
tracking pedigrees, some (but definitely not all) will give the same
bloom season for many generations.  My tall dark "dusky grape" is an E
child of two MLs.  And aren't IBs crosses of early dwarfs with later
TBs?  I dont' grow enough IBs to have noticed if their bloom season is
shorter than TBs or dwarfs.

Also, I've noticed that some cultivars seem to bloom at about the same
day of the year, while others bloom in relation to what the season is
doing.  Several folks have posted that cultivars bloom at different
times, depending on climate (region of the world).  In other words,
bloom time seems to be 'fixed' for some cultivars & not for others.

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8

Tennessee Whooping Crane Walkathon:
<http://www.whoopingcranesovertn.org>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
iris-talk/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
iris-photos/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>




------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
4 DVDs Free +s&p Join Now
http://us.click.yahoo.com/pt6YBB/NXiEAA/MVfIAA/2gGylB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index