Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Update: 2011 Acquisitions from Schreiner's


Schreiner's is the name that is connected with iris cultivation since 1925. I have many Schreiner cultivars in my garden, but for the fist time I ordered directly from them in 2011.   I will be tracking my purchases from Schreiner's as well as from other iris gardens and shared by friends as bloom season approaches.

When you order from Schreiner's you will pay as much as $65 for a new introduction and even older cultivars are about $10 for each rhizome. What you get for that is the healthiest, largest and mod well presented rhizomes available.  There are many packages available to reduce the costs and 1/2 price deals. You will also receive a bonus of some sort.  I ordered a Medal Winner combo and received as a bonus, "Italian Velvet."

Each rhizome was large and already showed signs of increase.  Given a mild winter the established themselves well in the fall and with an early spring many fans were growing well on every cultivar.  Some held up well to the last two weeks when we dipped into hard freeze territory.  Others, not so well.

As of April 10 in Mendon, NY, just south of Rochester, this is what these cultivars are looking like:

"Beverly Sills" has established itself well and weathered the frost pretty well.
"Golden Panther" really wilted after the frost.  Another rhizome
from Pleasant Valley acted similarly.
"Paul Black" did not produce as much increase,
but is very healthy. 
"Queen's Circle" has a 6 healthy fans.
"Sea Power is healthy but its fans are much smaller.
The bonus "Italian Velvet" is doing nominally well.
"Splashcata" is the most worrisome of what I bought from Schreiner's.
The frost took its toll.
   

No comments:

Post a Comment