Re: Re: Fwd: Iris for Various Climates

When I was a rookie gardener, I bought a special offer, 20 Dykes medal winners.  All but one died their first winter.  Over the years, I've tried a few other TB medal winners such as Victoria Falls, Acoma, Everything Plus, etc; none of these have survived here.  Beverley Sills, Mary Frances and Edith Wolford are on their 3rd and final chance here.  Thornbird is hanging in there, but hasn't bloomed since it's first year.  Needless to say, no more do I ever buy the newest Dyke or JW winners.  The old Historics do much better here.

I have about 400 SDB's, almost 150 MDB's, and over 100 IB's, etc for a total of over 900 different irises, so I think I know what I'm doing.

Occasionally I sell dwarf and median irises to rooky iris growers.  They do want to know what survives here; they don't care so much about the awards.  I don't even offer them anything that hasn't already survived 5 years in my garden.

Chuck's idea has great merit, even if it seems like a lot of extra work.

Eleanor Hutchison, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Z3
MIS & DIS Display Garden

> 
> From: irischapman@aim.com
> Date: 2006/09/06 Wed PM 03:59:58 CDT
> To: iris@hort.net
> Subject: Re: [iris] Fwd: Iris for Various Climates
> 
>   As a seller of iris. I find many people who order iris from me do pay attention to the award system. Many people in garden centers pro ably don't. 
>  They take the award to mean that it is an iris that is worthy of being placed in their garden and is a great performing iris. When time after time, Dyke medal winners die in their garden, they then stop paying attention to the awards. And as well may dismiss the AIS as not being connected to gardeners, but to a small specialized interest group, and not worth joining. This is indeed unfortunate.
>  
>  Exceptional colours etc always appeal to people, and they don't need awards to get their aficionados. But at least they know that they are taking a risk. When people buy based on award they are expecting to get a plant that does well for them, and they don't have the resources to evaluate where it was hybridized and where it does well. These are the knowledgeable and qualified people, some of who are garden writers, but not dedicated iris connoisseur as the people on this list. If the best plants don't do well in their garden, then they assume iris in general don't do well for them and will move on to some plant that does well for them, and promote those plants. These people (who order from catalogues) are often the movers and shakers of hort societies etc.
>  
>  Just some more food for thought. George Waters does have a point, and it does need to be addressed in some form. Iris as perennials in gardens is decreasing, other perennials are taking their place.
>  
>  Chuck Chapman
>   
> 
> 
> 
>    
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