The Late Summer divide

It's been vile weather for Iris this year here in Blighty (what an appropriate horticultural nick name for this year!) mild with drought, drought, drought all winter followed by cool, rain, rain, rain in spring and then positively cold with yet MORE rain through summer and it is STILL raining.

Needless to say we have been challenged with leaf spot, even after spraying twice it was rife. It's not like they crammed in together either, leaf by jowl so to speak, as it's their first year after transplant so pretty generously spaced. But it's not plant threatening, just ugly.

A byproduct of all this rain is prolific weed growth. A normal year would see weeding tailing off after May as the heat burns off the annuals and the perennial weeds have been hand weeded out in the main but not this year. I am still weeding at least twice a week which is a big drag!

Of course the iris are shooting up big fat glaucus fans in response to all the water, none has succumbed to rhizome rot as yet but I am expecting bad things in the winter if the wet continues.

On that jolly note (!) I have begun to acquire more plants in different classes, Standard Dwarf Bearded in the main but some Intermediates and Borders are creeping in as well as more Tall Beardeds. More to bread with is my story and I am sticking to it ;)

Hybridising this year has had mixed results, many more have failed than taken, the early season crosses took much better and I hope to have about 5 pods (crosses) to work with through the winter.

I am in desperate need of an organising and recording strategy so that I can simply plant out seeds/seedlings and record without having to rethink numbering, positioning every time. Any hybridisers out there who have a simple but effective system please PLEASE get in touch!

A month or so ago I filed inappropriately i.e. 'lost' my book recording all the crosses and behaviours of the iris. I was slightly frantic by week 3 of the loss, realising it really wasn't going to 'turn up', not to mention the scraps of tatty paper with scribbled iris notes on, now needing a permanent home. The day I began a new note book, having resigned myself to the loss, I found it, well the dog found it actually. She was chasing a biscuit into a re-useable hessian bag with nothing in it.....except my bright pink iris ledger ...GOOD DOG!

Bulging pods....

The crosses seem to be taking, not all of them but there are a good number with bulging seed pods!

MTB Iris Maslon

MTB Iris Yellow Flirt

MTB Iris Marden Meadow

MTB Iris Spring Blush

MTB Iris Gracchus

MTB Iris Snow Fiddler

MTB Iris Poker Chips

MTB Iris Ozark Maid

MTB Iris Mermaid Street

One of our newer MTB

Blooming

With all this sun and sudden increase in temperature the Iris are sprouting as fast as they can!. Although a bit less vigorous than the last couple of years almost everything is spiking and flowering. A coupled of the new additions have flowered, some though are resolutely refusing to show anything remotely resembling a flower spike. (Spring Blush, Marden Meadow, Mermaid Street and Grachus)

Snow Fiddler, Ozark Maid, Poker Chips and Daemon Imp are all spiking so flowers in the next week I hope.

The result of the cold is some short spikes and low down flowers on normally tall willowy bloomers. Dancing Lilacs (usually one of the tallest) is producing flowers within the fans...looks very odd indeed and rather cramped too.

Slow

Oh this season is dragging. Quite a few spikes now and even one flower starting it's thrust out of the papery wrapping but not one flower!

We are already 3+ weeks later than last year (Claire Doodle April 22nd), which admittedly was very early and in relation to 2010 we are probably along the same timing lines. That said watching plant after plant (flower) spike and then pause for a week or more (a New Idea spike now at 10 days and counting) is torture.

A good week of warmer, sunnier weather will have them out, though I'm sure they will flower in spite of the current miserable cloudlings and paltry temperatures but waiting, that's the thing. I am not a very patient woman, can you tell?!

Sun

I am longing for some sun. Not only for me but for the Iris, they are now sending up lengths of flowering spike with fat buds waiting to open but not one single flower has emerged, very frustrating all this waiting.

About 15 of the 120 potted Iris have spikes, which is on the low side. I'm putting it down to dividing a bit heavily (i.e small rhizomes!) on the less vigorous varieties. It's all good information for the future and I am recording pages and pages of behaviour when I remember!

My ex-partner in crime tells me she is recording the number of flowers per plant and spike on the backup collection she is developing and managing, which is noble in the extreme. I feel sort of obliged to do the same but know that I will never be quite that organised. I shall admire her efforts though.

First up......

Very unusually this year, Ben a Factor and Enriched are up first, although I suspect the others are sulking having been transplanted last Summer.

Enriched hase spikes on ALL it's stock plants, Enriched has about half spiking.

Nothing else is spiking but all of them are putting on some good leaf growth with all this water and of course the food they had a week or so ago.

Potted specimens are also showing signs of spiking, New Idea being the only one actually spiking. Leafage going mad here too but that's to be expected given it's so much more sheltered in the garden.

The Busy season

The RHS Plant Finder came out a week or so ago. Thrilling, we're in it for the first time ever. 'Commercialising our collection' as someone put it, making ends meet I muttered under my breath with a smile plastered on my face. All this collecting costs. Buying plants from nurseries, feeding, housing, replacing plants that die off, making pathways so it's relatively safe for anyone but me to walk through the collection, oh and labelling and re-labelling when I trip on one and it breaks in half!

So yes I am commercialising the collection because I want the collection to go on and I want it to get bigger.

During the winter I was researching parents, not mine but my Irises and as I researched I found out that I have a tiny number compared to the actual number available. Now before PH get worried that I don't have the pre-requisite 75%, I do that is 75% of the UK varieties (RHS Plant Finder listings) but in the USA there are another 400+ varieties. (source American Iris Society)

So you can see why I am commercialising it all. Given those numbers I need at least 3 more plots, an assistant/willing volunteer to help weed and so on, then of course purchase costs, shipping, duty etc etc etc. more labels, more food, more pathways.... MORE

I had a letter from an enthusiast this morning asking for a printed catalogue, if we had one and enclosing an unstamped envelope. So I suppose I need to add paper catalogue, postage and envelopes to my list of things that might need to be covered going forward. For the moment the online catalogue will suffice.

THE GARDEN

May is the month of Iris and they are truly all over the place, every magazine has an article, no doubt many show gardens at Chelsea will be sporting them.

We are thrilled to be in the RHS plant finder for the first time and even more thrilled to see a picture of one of the glorious MTB range (Bangles) on the front cover of this months The Garden magazine from the RHS
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/RHS-Publications/Journals/The-Garden/Past-Issues/2012-issues/May

April showers

Seedlings
 There seems to be much debate amongst those I know who breed Iris about the ins and outs of when and what and where is best to germinate and so on. For my BIS seeds I am following through on the initial idea of 6-8 fridge weeks then a warm window sill before hardening off and all seems to be going well.
All the pots are now out beside the house, hardened off and awaiting some space to be moved on into pots and some into the ground.
I did plant a large number of 'homegrown' seeds with only one known parent, now Iris texts will have you think that these are mostly self's (i.e they are self fertilised) which is quite probable given how hidden away the pollen etc al is but still, they may not be, and even self's don't always come true (well after 7 times selfing they are supposed to!). Anyway back to the topic, I planted all the seeds I had from last year (2011), outside all winter in the cold frames beside the house, so not freezing freezing but not exactly warm either. 
Up came 7 xMaslon, yippee, 2 xHeadcorn and today 1 xLoose Valley. Now this xLoose Valley is exciting because I have recently been told that those left out in the normal winter will likely sprout, if they're going to, in April. So maybe this is a sign of things to come. I am optimistic for the 6 other trays of 24 modules looking empty!.


Field Collection

Last week I finished the spring weed, an onerous task I might say. I loathe weeding almost as much as I loathe ironing but while i can buy ironing free clothes, mostly, weed free allotments are like hens teeth, rare things.
They all had a feed of bonemeal, this year is about roots and leaves and less about flowers while they establish in their new spot. That said they are coming along great guns with fat healthy leaves in the main and plump little rhizomes.
I lost 2 Maslon with root rot (3 remain), 1 Headcorn with the same (4 large plants remain). Disco Jewel is rather limping along as it did last year, 3 of 5 roots just didn't grow though the other 2 are in fact fat and flourishing as are the ones in pots at home but either it's a weak stock plant or just a temperamental variety. I also lost 1 Smash but with 4 remaining.
Apart from that there was a little leaf spot which I have sprayed for. A basic fungicide and removed as much dead leafage as possible. I don't like spraying and tbh the collection has had me using more chemicals than ever before in my gardening life but but but I feel a responsibility to keep them in the healthiest and best condition possible and for the moment that means spraying. 
Next year I shall investigate some more ecologically sound practices and establish how much latitude I have with perfection vs reasonable health.

Potted collection
More squirrel damage. 26 pots have succumbed to the little blighters tearing roots out of the ground and discarding them, half eating them (I so wish hey were poisonous!) or simply falling on them and breaking the fans, as part of their shenanigans to gain access to a nearby bird feeder. Grey squirrels are NOT welcome in my garden.
Thankfully the recent rains will give the fans a good start, hand watering the collection would be very onerous, although it is said they can do without water for 3 months at a time, which they did last year.


Any suggestions of suitable interplanting species I could try?


I am thinking about trading weeding favours for plants....say 2 plants per hour of proper weeding? what do you think?

Irises are a growing!

Seedlings
The new seedlings are hardening off in the mini greenhouses outside. It's a sheltered spot to the side of the house but it's a positive first stage in their journey to the field!

About half of them are big enough to be outside, another quarter will go out this week and next week the last laggers will go out regardless of progress. The laggers are en-route to the a sticky end if I am honest, if they don't show any signs by mid April they're compost fodder!

This may sound harsh but the outside grown iris seeds are up, xMaslon 4 and x Headcorn 1,  small but up so in their natural, un-forced environment they would be going somewhere if they were going to. With all the seeds and seedlings being grown there really is not time or space for dawdlers.

The seedlings from "Welch's Reward" and "Medway Valley" from 2010/2011 are going great guns in the field, rhizomes fattening up nicely and about half are putting on some really good top growth.

Field Collection
The replant seems to have gone well, we've lost a couple of rhizomes but in known-to-be weaker varieties and we still have the pre-requisite 3 of each in the ground. Many of the more vigorous plants are shooting up top growth and languishing in the early spring heat.

A good weed and some spring fertiliser will stand them in good stead for the coming season.

Potted collection
I potted up about 150 plants at division time last year. We simply didn't have the space for them so they have been stored chez moi on the garden tables.
After a winter of squirrel ravaging and dull dampness I had though many of them would suffer, wither and die but not a bit of it, I've lost about 6 in total and the rest are storming away with strong green top growth and fat rhizomes.

Weeding and feeding will be required here too, though I suspect it will take a different form to field weeds and feeds!

If you are interested in buying some of the potted stock please email me. Iris@rosewarnegardens.com all varieties are £6 a pot (tall 1ltr) each plus postage or you can collect by arrangement.

British Iris Society - seed growing

I am, unsurprisingly a member of the British Iris society and every year there is a seed distribution. A LONG list of seeds that have come from breeders, nurseries, individuals and just about anywhere really all collected by Mrs Criddle and her assistant and then sorted out and offered to other enthusiasts. MTB seeds are always quite rare and gone fast but this year I managed to secure a batch with a promise to send lots of 'pods' from our plants in early September.

Last year I grew all the seeds we got from our MTB patch, this year I will need to be a bit more circumspect, space is an issue already and will only get worse as we add more and more cultivars.

Selectivity I think and Mrs C will no doubt be happy with an influx of MTB seeds.

Do you visit National (Plant) Collections?

We visited another National Collection which kinda puts ours in the shade, they have 2000 varieties packed into a front garden. Galanthophiles are a bit of a curiosity I will admit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42165066@N03/sets/72157629122533604/with/6797115708/

For more information about collections in your local area see the Plant Heritage website (also called NCCPG)

Seedlings off to a great start

Caramel re bloomer of indeterminate species, waiting to see what it turns out to be

An as yet unamed Yellow SDB

After  a seeming short gap the first of the iris seedlings are up and off. this will make their 'spring' 3 months longer than their in-ground counterparts.

Now just watching the other 9 pots like a hawk....

I know I need to get out more... but it is winter after all :)

Twittering

We can be found at https://twitter.com/#!/IrisCollector

and Facebooking at https://www.facebook.com/MTBIris

Irises out of hibernation

It was supposed to be Christmas  but I got waylaid by festivities and the like and then by the wind and cold - I know excuses excuses but here we are 4th Jan and they are still lurking in the hydrator. so today they are being decanted from hydrator to pot and balanced along the bathroom window sill for  some sun and some warmth to get them going early.

The idea is that it 'fools' the seed into thinking winter is done and it's now spring (the irony is not lost on me that this year I could have left them outside with our freakily warm winter for the same effect!)
This then gives the seedling a long long long first spring (6 months instead of 3) in which to bulk out it's root and hopefully get it to flower next year in it's 2nd season instead of the usual 3rd or 4th.

Potted up and labelled, ready for a warm window sill

Just out of the hydrator, lurking in the perlite is all the potential of vernalised little Iris seeds