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.

   

7 March 2012 Gardening Log

What a perfect early spring day. Temps in the mid sixties, light winds.  I'm back in stride out there!

Yesterday it was a bit nippier but I got some work in, so beds A-2, A-3, C-2  and C-3 are completely cleared of weeds and dead foliage.  Bed F is almost clear.  Bone meal has been spread and worked in around everything in Beds A-2, A-3, B-3 and C-3.

Last year's bloom was disappointing and when I discovered that iris borers had infested almost every one of my hundreds of plants.  Every rhizome was dug up, cut back and soaked in a 10% bleach solution.  Each was then replanted.  There is every indication that all but a few cultivars will survive.  The question remains how this bloom season will be.

I was able to plant some rhizomes in clumps that should mimic natural increase.

I have two areas where Eagle Control (Sutton '88) is planted in clumps like this.  This one in Bed A-3 show how advanced the daffodils are.

Only two rhizomes of Hot Spice (Aitken, '89) survived.  One I sent to David because he expressed an interest. The other, shown here, may not bloom lie it did last year, but it survived!

I used the "Borer Wars" as an excuse to purchase lots of new cultivars as well.  Here is how some of them are doing.   These were ordered form Schreiners:

Beverly Sills (Hager '78) is a Dykes Medal Winner (1985).  I may have this already but it's an early acquisition and I want to make sure I have one that is accurately labeled.  Here is the growth from a single rhizome planted last August.

Another Dykes Medal Winner (2007) is Queen's Circle (Kerr, 2000) is doing beautiful.   

Sea Power (Keppel '98),  Dykes Medal  Winner (2008) is also from Schreiners.  This rhizome is a little less promising.

This clump of Kevin's Theme (Kerr '93) is from Borglum's and doing very nicely!