New England Iris and global warming

So, we're not having winter here so far, and it's already January. Therefore, my iris are still growing, a little. Lot of little tender green shoots.

(The periwinkles are actually blooming. Yikes.)

If it doesn't freeze much, I guess my iris will be ok (as they must be ok in North Carolina, or something), but if the weather suddenly returns to true New England freezing weather, are they all going to croak?

Just wondering.

It's the same here for me, constance.
I'm guessing that the new shoots will freeze and that they'll start over in the real spring.
I'm also going to guess that the DG experts will let us know what will really happen.

LoraB.

editing to add this link to the same topic: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/680935/

This message was edited Jan 10, 2007 12:28 PM

Your bearded iris should be fine. They never really die back here in Tennessee. We usually have a few months of freeze and thaw and then a few late brief spells into the low teens. Daytimes can be 40 - 60 degrees and then freezing at night. I don't cover mine with anything because I don't want the deer pawing through them looking for food. The edges and tips of the shoots may brown but the plants will take off when Spring actually gets here.

Neil

Neil,

Great explanation. I wish you Northern gardeners well with your Iris.

Judy

We finally had two days worth of freezing temperatures (which we should be having all the time) and now we're back to 50 degrees. Yuk. I can't cover the iris, since it's mostly warm and wet these days, so they'd rot if I did.

My understanding was that iris seriously dislike changes from freezing to warmth and back again, do they not? I guess all I can do is cross my fingers?

So tonight the temperature is 19 degrees. Will stay that way for a couple of days. Then back up to who knows what.

Hope the iris are as hardy as some say they are. Fingers crossed.

I thought that people with irises in areas where the temperature varied were supposed to put mulch on irises to prevent damage from the freezing/warming cycle.

This year, the weather has been so strange that I can't put stuff over the rhizomes -- they'd rot.

And now, they're freezing. I mean, really freezing, like 13 degrees. Not counting wind chill.

Chuck Chapman will not guarantee his iris here unless we plant the rhz. totally covered. I cover them with soil in the fall before freeup and then do mulch all newly planted iris quite heavily for the winter. After the freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw cycle is over in the spring, I uncover the rhz. so they can bake in the summer. Seems to work for me.

One other thing I do is that I plant all rhz. facing south, so they get the most sun.
inanda

My situation is similar to Constance22 - living in western Massachusetts with a very strange winter indeed. I planted bearded irises for the first time late in August - I recently covered them lightly with evergreen boughs. Now I read there is a chance they will rot! Please advise as to what I should do - remove the boughs or keep the boughs on.

The majority of irises are in deep shade during the winter - so there has been limited growth since October. By late April they will be getting lots of sunshine.

Seandor

Seandor-

If your ground is going to stay frozen, I'd leave them covered. But if the ground is going to keep thawing and be wet, I'd probably uncover them unless your covering is light enough to allow air to get in to the rhizomes. Since they are newly planted, watch for heaving in the freeze/thaw cycles. You might have to push them back down. Occasionally I use a rock on top of the rhizome (not the growing end) to keep them from heaving, but you have to watch for signs of rot.

Neil

Well, that's the funny thing about global climate change. The climate you expect is not the climate you get.

On the news reports over the weekend, they just moved Tennessee into a warmer plant zone .....unfortunately, no one told my frozen and dead camellias.......

I read that there's a new "global warming" section of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. That's scary.

Here, we're finally getting seriously freezing temperatures and (suprise!) a couple of inches of snow. Nothing to write home about, but at least climatically-appropriate.

{Been trying to keep a camellia alive here for many years. It's not really happy, and it doesn't bloom much, but it still lives. So far.]

Iowa winters always have weeks of thaw followed by lots of snow--iris come thru it better than many of my other perennials. My iris had 3 inch new green blades on them before this snow storm hit. They are under 6 inches of ice and snow and I know they will be fine.

Now, THAT's encouraging! Thank you, Wanda!

Makes me hope all the iris may survive. Despite all the non-normal weather.

I have grown iris in Iowa since I was a baby and the weather extremes are nasty. I worry more about a wet, cool summer than anything else.

i wonder if they will flower for you

Iris bloom when they are good and ready--so many factors to consider in the Tall beardeds: age of rhizome, rain, spacing. I had clumps bloom last spring that I haven't seen bloom in 4 springs. Got a few surprises.

The Beared Iris wont bloom here in this part of florida they grow like crazy tho i dug a few one year and kept theam in a small fridge for a mnth then replanted they bloomed in march for me am still not sure if it was the cold or the rest that made theam bloom regards paul

We had a wet cool spring and summer. The iris didn't like having soggy feet -- and our soil is pretty sandy. Lots of monsoon-type rain, for those who've been in monsoon climates. Straight down, lots of it in a downpour, big drops. (makes a nice, sound, however).

Germanic iris like a cold spell to set blooms. They ALWAYS get that in Iowa. Too much sometimes. April 28 & 30the brought hard freezes to my yard in 2005 wiping out 2/3 of my buds.
I think Spring 2006 was Mother Nature apoligizing to me.

Well, lately here we've gone from a long freezing spell, then two days way up to 41, and now back down to freezing, and expected to stay that way. Guess I'll find out which irises are really hardy. . .

Sounds like an Iowa winter to me. freeze 7 thaw, freeze & thaw. The dwarfs & Intermediates & historics love it. The more modern ruffled TB hate it.

constance -Yes last spring was a monsoon I was outside many a monsson day with stakes in hand trying to save my Iris from total demise and then when the sun came out clearing the rizomes off, trying to keep them from rotting.After last spring I cut back on adding too many more Iris and went crazy with daylilies which love our climate and were gorgeous.I still love my iris and look forward to them this spring but hopefully with out the spring we had last year. Did you see the cherry tree blooming in front of the For The Love of the Breed[near animal rescue league]store in january? It was so strange but beautiful.My flowering Quince was blooming also I'm hoping it will bloom again when it unthaws.Heidi

No, I didn't see that, but I had an iris that was in bud in December. And the periwinkles WERE actually blooming.

I'm afraid the lilacs have grown buds that now have frozen.

I'd really rather just have the usual four season thing back again.

We've had a big thaw the last few days --with lots of muddy paw prints in my kitchen to prove it. Getting colder again today & tommorrow with rain & snow. Not the best weekend to travel.

I'm now an official historic iris addict, trying to push aside everything else in the garden in a search for more iris space. Just need some happy companions so something else is in bloom when the iris aren't.

Anybody have a good labeling system? Last season I bought white garden stakes and some silver tags so I would know what was what -- the writing on both faded, and the stakes keep getting heaved out of the ground. I'm sure half of what I just planted last year is now mislabeled.

I use the Brothers label imprinter on metal garden stakes. Some of my friends have shown me stakes that have gotten thru 4 Iowa winters & summers without fading. here is thread on my labeling effort last spring: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/585902/

I was out in my Iris yesterday ( I only have 50). I noticed that the alternate freeze thaw freeze we had here had killed a number of the leaves and that these dead leaves were wet and yucky. Where they were stuck next to leaves that were still green they had begun to rot them and in some cases the rhizome underneath. I cut all of this away. I hope it works. BTW is yucky a horticultural term????

Slimy works for me... I trim my iris to 5 inches in the fall, and then clean debris off them early spring. Let the sun dry those babies out!