Re: Re: Cult-removing stalks

Amazingly enough a few people mentioned this thread at the National Spuria Convention last weekend. The only time you want to leave seed pods on your iris is if you are hybridizing new plants. If you did not make the cross yourself, it is nature doing what normal, trying to make a lot more plants. However nature rarely will make as good of a plant as your highly developed hybrid.
Most people do not like the look of the seed pods and stalks and cut them out to leave just the foliage as it distracts from the landscape value of the iris. But the most important reason is to keep the seeds out of the flower bed. They will germinate in your existing plant and when you divide the plants you will have a mix of the named iris and the natural cross which will look nothing like its parent.
This is just good garden culture and should be practiced just like weeding, insect and disease control. The only way to find these things out is to keep asking questions and observing good gardeners. Hopefully you have an iris club nearby and that way you will pick up these things fast and lose that new comer tag. 
Karl Miller
Lark Label
Custom Imaged, Solid metal, Plant Labels
larklabel@kcisp.net
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: TGardner 
  To: sibrob@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2003 8:28 AM
  Subject: RE: [sibrob] Re: Cult-removing stalks




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/ySSFAA/2gGylB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

To post to Sibrob: sibrob@yahoogroups.com 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index