On 2014-03-26 22:48:45 +0000, Bob Hobden said:
"sacha" wrote
Spider said:
Sacha wrote:
Today, I planted out 13 Iris I had bought from Cayeux. They've been in
pots for months and Ray had kindly moved them into a tunnel when we had
incessant rain. The border they're in is very narrow and faces due
south and west as it turns a corner. Lots of grit was dug into it, so
now I cross my fingers and hope for the very best! Ours is a wet
garden, so not ideal for these beautiful plants so this is my last
serious attempt to grow them. If these fail, I'll buy just a couple
more and put them where another appears to have seeded itself by the pond!
Good luck with that, Sacha. I love irises, so I understand your angst.
I've got a few to plant, but put it off while my finger healed (the
dreaded Cellulitis!), so as soon as I can I must put them in a sunny
spot.
Thanks, Spider! I hope your healing is rapid! The strange thing is -
or is it? - that while some Iris the very generous Bob gave me simply
drowned in 2012, a truly appalling wet year, Dahlias are never lifted
here and so far, continue to thrive. But it is fair to say that most
of those that have done that so far are species. I hope the Dahlia
varieties we had in front of the house last year all come back this
year. We've had so little frost but it has been wet here and there!
It is strange but we had the same sort of wet as you and we are on
clay/silt but ours came through well after a slow start.
Looked at them this week and gave them a handfull or two of Growmore,
despite the winter wet they are already back looking good for this year.
I'd guess the problem with your originals is that the border they were
in was at the bottom of the field at the very back of the Nursery. We
know it's always inclined to be wettest up there if there's any wet
about but in 2012, it was saturated and a lot of water both above and
below ground must have drained down to those beds. You may remember
there's a fair slope there, so neither the iris at the bottom, nor our
attemtped veg/fruit plot halfway up, stood a hope in hell!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk