Re: LA's and Rain/ Historic purples

At 02:18 AM 9/9/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Maybe I should order Iris more offen? Here in Hawaii [Oahu] we
>hadn't see much this year in the way of rain. So I send off an order
>and it comes in, I plant all the Iris and we've had rain for the last 4
>days since the order came and it included LA Iris. 
>Dahliaman@muskrat.com


If this line of reasoning is extrapolated to the U.S. Atlantic Coast, then
someone in North Carolina or Virginia must have just received and planted
one heck of an iris order. Okay, who's responsible for hurricane Fran?
Confession is good for the soul. :) :)

I just spent Sunday afternoon dividing my Mom's bearded irises.  I
encountered some rot, but nothing that a knife and a bucket of bleach
solution couldn't fix. By the way, dipping your irises in bleach solution is
a good way to get that French manicure look while gardening. :)  I'm trying
my best to encourage my Mom to try Siberians and Louisianas since her soil
is naturally rich and moist from 25 plus years of my father mulching the
flower beds.

By the way, my Mom remembers beautiful, deep purple/lavender (not black)
bearded irises growing in her parent's yard circa the 1940's.  She said that
they were there when her family moved in, which indicates that this variety
was probably older than 1940 (maybe even older considering these plants were
in a small, rural, southern town).  She does recall that the foliage was
much shorter than the TB's that  I have ordered for her in recent years and
that the stand of fans was extremely dense.  This makes me think that the
iris she is dreaming of was an intermediate or border bearded. My Mom also
compared the plain, unruffled flower to a white bearded iris she once had
(probably I. pallida).  Any guesses or recommendations on historic pre-1940
IB's or BB's which would fit this bill?

-Donald (Madge, is this bleach my hands are soaking in?)



Donald Mosser
dmosser@southconn.com
North Augusta, SC, USA
Zone 7b-8
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