sugestions please

apparently all my irises are fall bloomers. or they dont know they supposed to bloom in the spring time anyway as i thought i had some.


anyhoo can you all suggest some spring bloomers which actually bloom in the spring??

thanks Marie

Marie,

There are very, very few irises that bloom only in the fall. If you have fall bloomers, they are probably actually rebloomers that will bloom both spring and fall under ideal growing and climatic conditions. However, there are many circumstances that can cause an iris to not bloom when it's "supposed" to.

Make sure that your irises have enough sunlight (at least 6 hrs of direct sunlight a day), are not either over or under fertilized, are not overcrowded, are not buried too deeply, and have enough but not too much water. Also, resist the urge to move them around too often. Your best bloom will come from plants that have been undisturbed for 2-3 yrs.

Laurie

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/698111/

We are discussing blooming here
and perhaps if you add Super phosphate (bloom booster) now will help for spring bloom
:)
A

And only two of my 36 rebl;oomers consistently re-bloom in the fall. Sigh. Can we ever get this thing right?

Do you prefer superphosphate to bone meal? Does it take bone meal too long to become available to plants? I try to use organic methods when I can.

I prefer superphosphate because I live in the woods surrounded by predators who may be attracted to dig in my gardens after the scent of bone meal. I have enough trouble keeping the deer out of my iris beds. I don't need to be luring dogs, cats, coyotes, wolves, black bear, weasels, skunks, raccoons, etc., etc., etc., to go rooting around in them as well.

Laurie

I too prefer Super-Phosphate or even Triple Super-phosphate.........for a totally different reason.

"The use of Bone Meal - - can result in the human equivilent of Mad cows Disease." I read that they suspect that using Bone Meal for long periods of time can result in turning human brains slowly into mush. I kid you not!! They had a woman in Texas ( I believe) not too many years ago - - die from something which looked very similar to "Mad Cow's Disease". Scans of her brain showed that it was slowly turning to 'mush", and they contributed it to her continuous use of Bone Meal in her gardening. There have been other such reports too.

NOT often, NOT common, but has showed up world-wide, more than once., and may be still inconclusive. I never used it again after I heard and then read that. Why take the risk?

http://www.ibiblio.org/rge/archive/970821_17371.html

http://www.mad-cow.org/00/dec00_late_news.html

~Margie

Wow, Margie! I am impressed. No more bone meal for me. Hopefully it will be Better Bloom from now on. -- or super phosphate.

My brain is already mush. No great loss.

Mine is mushy too, but no use introducing this mush to others. I can give up bone meal and switch to a chemical or to rock phosphate. No point in dealing with something dangerous.

Yeah.....better safe and than sorry. You two are so funny - - saying your brains are already mush. LOL

Wanda Dear,

Look for Chuck Chapman's Forever Blue. Reblooms here regularly. There are a couple of others too but.... under snow at present. I even had a sib rebloom last year. -- Something, something Line. Also under the snow right now. Think that the sib got some of the extra TLC used on Forever Blue as they are quite near to each other.
inanda

I'll look at it. Your season is so short that it's a wonder anything reblooms for you. Maybe if I fed them in August?