Re: RE HYB: Trial Gardens

As Chuck knows, I have most of his intros and love them all. When visitors come to see the irises blooming in spring, many of them go "ooooh" over his irises. I wait for that before I tell them it's another of Chuck's. :)

I'm about to try more TB's here this year and have a new area just for them. My bugaboo is that in the past I bought many of the Dyke winners and few of them survived here, which is 2 zones colder than where Chuck lives. I have well over 700 different dwarfs and medians, which survive here very well, for the most part. I usually give each iris 3 chances and then it's outa here.

I'd also like to try more AB's, but there aren't that many offered here in Canada. I've had 4 of 5 survive here for a few years, and two even bloomed in their 2nd year. I also had a Japanese since 2001 that has survived & bloomed again this year.

Nowadays, I prefer to buy my irises from Canadian suppliers because they've already tested for hardiness here.

Most of my new rhizomes are grown in raised nursery beds for their first year at least. I have so many new ones each year, that I like to keep an eye on all of them in one place, rather than come across one in trouble that I just didn't notice out in the landscape. When I finally do move them to the landscape, I split them in two, so I have a backup plant at all times.

I do have a list of my top ten choices for MDB SDB BB and IB's that I share with rookie gardeners. I would hate for new gardeners or gardeners new to growing irises to spend the amount of money I've spent over all these years, before I figured out what would grow here successfully and survive the winters and springs here in Manitoba. Some breeders' irises grow very well here, others do not. I've emailed a few re the success (and some failures) of their irises and never got a response back. Since I've been documenting my irises since 1985, I have a good idea of what irises to buy and which ones to pass by, based on prior survival rates.

In any case, my goal is also testing for hardiness. I'm not going to baby my irises by potting them up and bringing them inside for winter as I've heard some gardeners do. I'm an equal opportunity grower. :)

El, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Z3
DIS & MIS Display Garden

----- Original Message ----- From: <irischapman@netscape.net>
To: <iris@hort.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 8:26 AM
Subject: [iris] RE HYB: Trial Gardens


For me in my harsh climate, I evaluate for good performance as well as beauty, flower stock etc.
Plants are evaluated not just when they bloom but also when they are transplanted. If at the time of moving, if the foliage/increase looks bad, they are discarded without consideration of their exceptionallity (some exceptions for colour or pattern breaks). Some plants that seem to do well don't transplant well and there is a lot of losses with transplanting. These are dismissed for further consideration.

As I'm most concerned re cold climate dependability, I only consider how well they do in cold climates. We are Canada zone 5 here, about equivalent to USA ratings of 3. Bloom time for TBs is peak about June 15th to give an idea.
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