Re: CULT: Blyth iris

I wrote
> > Rick, what kind of water (nature and supplemental) do you use in the
> > winter and have you noticed any relationship between winter
> > dormancy/lack of dormancy/early onset of spring growth in the cultivars
> > we wet soggy hot south easterners complain about not doing well here?  I
> > am thinking of possible tendency to respond to warm spells, subsequent
> > freeze damage, and nice wet relatively warm winter weather for diseases.

and Rick replied

>Here in my part of California we get most of our rain during the winter
>and early spring (Oct to April) and it is cool enough to trap that
>moisture in the soil for the duration .  Hence I do not do any
>irrigation during this time unless we get an extreme dry spell.

>....Varieties that I plant in September
>and October seem only to establish roots and not grow much foilage. The
>foilage really starts to take off in February.  Because of our mild
>winter (20-30 frosty nights a winter, 25 or 26 degrees being a real cold
>night) they are only semi-dormant....
 
> PS:  We haven't had a killing freeze in the eight years I've been here.
 
Thanks Rick.  The other places that I know of that grow Blyth intros
commercially are in Texas (?) and Keith Keppel.  Wonder if it freezes
often where Keith is now?

As for rot, these intros seem to be more afflicted with what we were
jokingly calling the molliegrubs - failure to thrive, major tendency to
sulk, iris tuberculosis ("wasting disease") at least in my garden.  They
sit there and gradually fade away, often taking several years to finally
die.  But before we go on that silly thread again, I admit I haven't
been looking at them closely for signs of pathology.  For all I know,
they may just taste better to crickets.

Phooey, trying to sort this out is impossible - too many unknowns.

(Jeff Walters cwalters@cache.net - this address doesn't seem to work for
me, but it was on your last post.  Any idea why it won't work?)
 
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA
more rain again today.
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