ENOUGH already!!!

Just a quick rant here. I think I've been amazingly tolerant of Ma Nature's shenanigans in my iris beds this year, but enough is enough. I mean, 32 degrees and possible freezing rain and SNOW showers on May 20? COME ON!!! My SDBs are just starting to hit their blooming stride. :-o

Laurief: Do you build little tents for them? Crazy weather all over. In Alabama we've had no rain. Fire warnings during the last month. Plants Ive never had to water are dying from the drought. Hope your SDBs survive. Your photos have been keeping us going all winter!

Too many for tents. It's strictly survival of the fittest in my iris beds. We, too, are in drought conditions with fire warnings most of the spring. Fire crews have been battling a major blaze up at the Boundary Waters for weeks now (or at least it seems like weeks). I'm very reluctant to water my bearded beds in spite of their desperate need because our temps are so cool and my soil is so heavy that I'm afraid the water won't be absorbed and/or evaporate as quickly as it should. As stressed as my surviving irises are right now, it wouldn't take much to push them over the edge into rotsville. So I'm hedging my bets that they're better off being thirsty right now.

Laurie

I was thinking of "row covers". I am starting new beds this year. I am hoping to keep them in 4 x 8 or 4 x 12 sections of raised beds. Maybe that will be a manageable size for row covers if the same thing happens to me down the road.

best of luck for your iris babies.

I decided a long time ago that I don't want to grow irises (or any plants) that require coddling or extraordinary measures to keep alive in my climate. If they can't hack it without row covers, they are welcome to die and make room for irises that can.

I'm into tough love. ;-)

Laurie

they are pretty tough. I found a bunch laying in the road, that a zealous yard worker had dug up before they had a chance to bloom and threw out with the yard trash. (these are bearded iris) I guess he thought they were weeds. i planted them. they haven't bloomed, but they are happy to have a home.

What a lucky find.

I suppose saying I am tired of a week of rain drowning my plants sounds kind of silly after hearing about the fires but I am ready for a day of sunshine. Want to tackle the weed problem and take non smashed iris shots from heavy rain for a change. Hope the irises survive the snow and hope the fires get put out soon.
Julianna

I second that Laurie-- I too am getting a little disgusted with the weather of late.

Our temps have only been slightly warmer than yours, but the wind has just been blasting for the last three days. Seems like all of my irises are wind whipped and torn to shreds as soon as they open.

You know, as irritated as I get on a day like today when it's too doggone chilly for me to even make myself do garden chores, I still keep reminding myself how astoundingly glorious last year's iris bloom season was. Even if I do only have a bloom season like that one once every ten years, it's worth all the intervening years of moderate bloom to get there. It's even worth the occasional really rotten year like this one. The memory (and photos) of 2006 will keep me going for a good long while.

I'm keeping my eye on the prize. I just can't wait until the next "Year of Iris Glory"!

Laurie

Iris here have come and gone. I was looking forward to three that bloomed last year and I had marked the colors hoping to ID them. The same three bloomed this year, but not the same colors! I think I have two planted closely together in each case. One of each bloomed last year and adjacent ones bloomed this year. Hopefully, with some permanent beds put in this year, all will bloom every year and I will be able to see what Ive got.

I think everybody in the US got a taste of that two or three weeks of freezing weather in mid to late April. Other than having had all of your blossoms freeze, has anyone noticed any other ill effects?

The buds on my SDB's weren't even close to being up yet, but it seems like after that cold snap that most of them are now blooming on 8" stalks down in the foliage. Bud counts and branching that are normally threes and more, are ones and twos. Anyone else seeing this?

Seems like a lousy year to evaluate anything.

April's late freeze was just the lethal icing on our northern cake, I'm afraid. I believe most of the damage in my beds was sealed in Feb. when we experienced an extended period of sub-zero temps with virtually no snow cover. Then temps started to warm in March followed by more freezing in April. It was all just too much for many of my irises. There has been wholesale rot and loss in my TB beds, and quite a bit of the same even in the median beds.

Irises that have managed to survive and bloom are doing so on stunted stalks with itty bitty flowers, often misshapen.

This is a fantastic year for evaluating the hardiness of plants. It's a lousy year for evaluating anything else.

Laurie

Its going to be a bad year for us southern folks who wanted to expand our iris collections this year. I was counting on ordering from some northern sources who might be culling their less hardy iris. Now they are just gone. (Instead of 'gone south' to a more favorable climate).

Candy Queen bloomed with three petals and all the iris are only a few inches off the ground so far, even the IBs, not many do I see being proper height but Candy Queen does have another bloom stalk coming and all the iris so far that are blooming are in a Eastern exposure near the house, not in the more exposed beds though they are developing bloom stalks looking more normal than the earlier ones. Cherry Garden in the sheltered spot is blooming like Snow Maiden but not yet in the more northern garden spots. Those two SDB's seem to be my toughest against the cold iris next to Eleanor's Pride and Debbie Rairdon. Will learn more about the new ones later. Serendipity Elf and Firestorm are opening up today.
Julianna

Our weather was strange last year, and it's been strange this year, too, but in a different way. Winter here waay too warm through January, irises started growing waay too early, then precious little gween leafies got body-slammed in Feb. by a long nasty deep-freeze for weeks, followed by thaw, freeze, thaw.

Then a five day nor'easter . . . yada yada.

I'm starting to collect really old cultivars with the thought that they can take all sorts of beatings . . .

I agree with you laurie--a blooming season like 2006 makes anything else pale by comparison.

With all the root rot brought by cold & wet weather, it is easy to see that the established dwarfs, IBs & MTBs did the best. Few blooms, but vigorous foliage & increase. The modern ruffled TBs did the worst--lots of rot to cut out . Of course, the historics did the best in bloom & tolerance. No surprise there.

constance22: me too. I am afraid the historics will even be more rare, now that the vendors are promoting the reblooming bearded iris. I want to but in some old ones this year too. Our iris season is very short.
But, I grew up in Michigan, so I got to have them even if its only for a day every other year.

There are lots of historics around still. There's the HIPS sale, Superstition has a lot, other internet places. I get really tired of ruffles.

Do you know of HIPS, gloria125? I think someone from Dave's Garden recommended them to me last year.

They're great people, very knowledgeable, very helpful -- the Historic Iris Preservation Society. http://www.hip-roots.com

constance22: yes. someone recommended HIPS last fall. And a member even sent me a bunch of seed that I am working on now. Exciting.

I don't know that historics will ever be rare-- And each year MOREiris pass the 30 year mark and join the HIPS list.