The north side of... RUSSIA??


I haven't been paying attention to Iris-LIST for awhile.... trying to get
used to going back to the classroom where we want ***happy*** students
rather than competent ones. Interestingly, very few have anything to learn,
having graduated from high school and all. Makes my job a lot easier!!!

**
But while I haven't been looking, a new member of IRIS-LIST has arrived:
Juri
Moscow, Russia
Colhicums in bloom
-----> WELCOME!!

Colhicums are in bloom right now in Buffalo, New York, also. Brother in Virginiareports his are in bloom, too.

***

and

Rosalind Newman
zone 5

(but I don't know which part of zone 5...)

asked about puttig iris on the north side of the house.
****
The other location was on the north
side of my house and I am losing some of those rhizomes to rot in the
fans but not in the rhizome itself.  I had read where some iris growers
had successfully grown irises in partial sun.  I was wondering if the
north side of the house is way too shady for the rhizomes.  I noticed
that the soil stays slightly moist.  I know irises don't like standing
water but does moist soil and standing water around the rhizome have the
same effect? I was thinking that as long as the water wasn't puddled
around the rhizome that it was ok.  I'm quessing that the soil is too wet
but it so late in the season to move them and I really don't have
anywhere else to put them right now. I'm sure that some will survive- I
see a couple of them that look just as healthy as the irises I planted in
full sun.  I was wanting to know if there is anything that I can do this
late in the season to help the irises short of moving them?  I have a
feeling that I can't do much and I will have to learn from this mistake.
***

Buffalo,NY is sometimes in zone 5 and sometimes in zone 6a, but if I were
Rosalind, and I wanted to save my iris, even tho there is a bit or rot
on the foliage, I'd move them!! Even now!!

You can take the rootball and all and get them into a dryer location. I think
you would not want to remove them from the soil and dry them as you would
in July. But I think you will see that rot go into the rhizome and you
WON'T see it in the spring. 

I think I'd determine if these are iris you want to see in the spring. Just
because iris don't cost as much as some other plants is not reason enough
to "waste" them.

I think, also, that the problem is the moisture and not the location/lack of
sun. ---> I have a narrow strip of "soil" next to my house on the north side.
Last year, I was making room for new iris, and didn't want to toss out the
old ones, yet, and so, as is my practise, I pull them, and move them to
another spot, loosing the label, and telling them that it's my fault and all,
but I moved several into this strip on the north side of the house where it
is very very very dry.

They bloomed beautifully! The sun hits them in the morning all summer long,
and the only moisture they get is from the rains that flow onto them from
the sidewalk, or from watering when I clean the sidewalk, which is not 
often.

They did so well that I pulled out a lot, most! of my over-5-year-olds and
added them to this strip this year.

My point? I think that dry conditions is equally, if not more, important 
than the sunshine! If they don't survive the wet conditions, no amount of
sun.... 

******
The extra rhizomes went into a box with a sign "Free to a good home" at a
meeting of the Western New York Hosta Society and were snatched up quickly
by these traditionally shade gardeners!

Carolyn Schaffner in Buffalo, NY
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