Re: *** SPAM *** Re: Re: Welcome to sibrob

Hi All,
 Jim Murphy here, in zone 6b, North Garden, Va., where it has been horribly Hazy , Hot , and Humid for a week after a cool, dry spring.
The native ph here is between 3.8 and 4.5. I amend the bends with composted horse manure, that has lime in it, and end up with a ph between 4.5 and 5.3. Many plants do just fine at that ph, Siberians and JI's do just fine. Daylilies, mums, asters, ornamental grasses, all seem to prosper.
 Butter and Sugar does pretty well here as far as increase, but tends to make clumps that are loose, not tight, like other SI's and JI's . The blooms are just fine, maybe smallish. The big difference is that the plant is always short, even in a wet year. It grows right next to old and new, dip and tet, but is always about the shortest, rivaling one that I have labeled Nana Alba.
 SI bloom season is over except for a couple of blooms. JI season started two days ago. I have a JI that I have plans on introducing, and am watching several SI seedlings. None would be any competition for those on this robin, but are performers that would put them in a league with other tried and true landscape cultivars. I am breeding for tall, perfectly colored SI's with perfect , dark green foliage, and fast growth. On the JI's I am looking for 4 and 6 fall tall plants with dark flowers and light signals, that can take our tremendous summer heat and increase well, with little need for spraying. All the good ones that I have thus far are dips, but do have some tet seed this year. Jim

Arthur Goodwin wrote:
Thanks for the lead. I'll check Tranquil Lake Nursery out.

I also have had only mixed success with Butter and Sugar. From my experience
I think it might be more sensistive to soil PH than many (most) siberians,
as it did pretty good for me here in Denver when in a pot (with a neutral
potting soil mixed about half and half with peat moss thus making the soil
mix acidic), but is barely surviving now that it has been in the main bed
for a couple of months --and the main bed, even in spite of all the peat
moss I added, is probably still on the alkaline side because of the large
amount of calcium bentonite that naturally occurs here in the subsoil. Out
of the 81 Siberians I planted out this spring, Butter and Sugar is one of
only 3 that do not look happy (and both of the other 2 were quite
small/struggling when I planted them out). When I lived in Iowa I planted a
dozen or so Siberians around the printshop where I worked and they all did
fine except for Butter and Sugar (it eventually died out completely)  -- and
the soil there was naturally on the alkaline side and I didn't do anything
to improve it. Also when I lived in Michigan I remember a friend complaining
about how his Butter and Sugar just wouldn't increase -- he had it planted
next to a concrete sidewalk and the lime there may have been a problem -- 
especially since he later moved it out into a mixed perennial bed in the
center of his yard and then it took off.

Has anyone else noticed particular varities that appear to be more PH
sensitive than the norm?

Best Regards,
Arthur Goodwin

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Jpwflowers@aol.com>
To: <sibrob@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: [sibrob] Re: Welcome to sibrob


  
Hi Arthur, I just tried the website of Tranquil Lake Nursery in
Rehoboth, MA.  They list several of the varieties you are looking for
including Dewful, Cool Spring and Tropic Night.  I've never ordered
 from them so don't know anything about their plants.  Many years ago we
went there and saw the most fantastic  and beautiful planting of Butter
and Sugar, which we haven't been able to grow well.  Their prices are
reasonable.  They also sell daylilies.  Marty Schafer, Carlisle, MA

-----Original Message-----
From: Arthur Goodwin <ArthurGoodwin@netscape.com>
To: sibrob@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 21:44:12 -0600
Subject: [sibrob] Re: Welcome to sibrob

  >New members are invited to send a brief introduction to the list.

Hi!   I just joined the robin and per the info from the robin
moderator/owner's welcome message I thought I'd let everyone know a bit
about myself and my garden. I've liked Siberians since I first grew
them in
the 1980s when I lived in Cohasset, CA (at 3500 feet in the northern
Sierra
Nevada where I had a small nursery that mostly grew asiatic lilies).
During
the 1990s I moved around a lot for work (Iowa, Michigan, etc.) and
didn't
really ever have any place to grow anything. I now live in Denver, CO
and
finally have a place to plant things again. This spring I put in a big
bed
(48x 12 feet) that I plan to eventually fill up with Siberian Iris,
Daylilies, and True Lilies (Asiatics and Orientals). My soil here was
horrible: shallow, mostly fill dirt overlaying compacted clay, with a
lot of
rock/gravel/bentonite mixed in it. I double-dug the bed to a depth of 18
inches, removed many, many wheelbarrow loads of rock and then added in
16x
4-cubic foot bags of peat moss plus a small mountain of compost. The end
result was a nice bed of soil about 24 inches deep. I now have it
partially
planted with 80 different siberians, a dozen or so daylilies, and about
40
different asiatic lilies with many more planned additions for next
year. I'm
in the process of installing a drip irrigation system for the bed -- 
drip
being all but mandatory here given that we only get about 15 inches of
rainfall in a normal year and many years Denver ends up rationing water;
fortunate for me, too, the bed is directly above an old branch sewer
line
that appears to leak some as I've I found the ground below about a foot
in
depth to always be slightly damp. (I also have plans for another bed on
the
other side of the house once I figure out how to get rid of a gigantic
rock
(the size of a small car) that is mostly buried there.)

One of my goals is to have a planting of all the Morgan Award winners.
I got
a list of the siberians who have won this award from 1952-2005 from the
Society for Siberian Irises website, and have to date acquired (or
ordered)
all of the listed award winners except for:
    1954 - Tropic Night
    1966 - Cool Spring
    1970 - Dewful
    1974 - Grand Junction
    1979 - Augury
If anyone has information as to source(s) for any of these I would be
most
appreciative.

Thanks,
Arthur Goodwin





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