[gardeners] Update Iris
drusus@golden.net (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 29 Jul 1998 21:46:59 -0400
It was mainly my pseudacorus and Dorothy K.
>Williamson that had borer.
>
>Keep me posted. How many rz were damaged/killed.
Well, the DKW and the pseud. are definitely gone. I saved Scouts honour,
swizzler, a striped one (which I love) and there are some which lost the
labels. I am afraid that most of the ones i got from you are gone, as it
was the extended bed which got hit the worst, also my old stock was pretty
big so the borers had to work harder to finish them off. Anyway, I have a
small space to put them now so I couldn't fit them all in anyway.
I transplanted the Sibes to the front yard and will rig a drip gadget
tomorrow. They got watered in good and soaked around with transplant
fertilizer, 52 in the middle, I think. The fans are all in pots, many
pots. I don't think I'll have much bloom next year but that's ok. It'll
take them awhile to recover.
Now that the bugs are gone I am over being upset. The iris which live,
live --nice and fatalistic, don't you think? I must say that the iris
borer is one of the most disgusting pests I've dealt with, right up there
with the giant rats I had in my storeroom in Africa. Ugh. I have had iris
in that bed for 10 years and the worst i've had to deal with is chopping
off the woody old bits from giant rhizomes. I've dug it up 3 times before,
not counting this last fiasco. I think I'll investigate Richter's scanmask
and see if that might help. I don't believe I got all the bugs--it is a
pretty big bed.
The daylilies I got from you seem to be fine. Is there anything I should
watch for? I haven't had as much bloom as I usually do, but that applies
pretty well to everything in the garden, except my new L. speciosum rubrum
which has been going gangbusters. Either it's oblivious to the funny
weather or it's on its way out too. I hope not. Lovely slight lemony scent.
What a strange year this has been. I think I'm going to console myself
with some new martagons to make up for the iris.
What happened to all your stock if you ended up in Victoria?
Lucinda, mostly recovered.