Pacific Coast Iris survival, was Iris lazica

Speaking of irises, last fall I bought some Pacific Coast hybrid
irises that were shipped to me bare-root. I planted them in a
well-drained spot the day they arrived, but the majority of them have
failed to grow. Never again!

Guessing wildly, I wonder if their roots were not too dry, perhaps from
bare-rooting onward.

I don't know where you got them, or how they were bare-rooted and shipped,
or exactly how you planted them. But because your voice has such weight in
this PBS list, I feel that I must speak up on behalf of Pacific Coast Irises
(PCIs). Hybrids and species have about the same, simple needs.

PCIs grow well, travel well bare-rooted if the roots are kept moist (there
are many methods); transplant well. I have shipped lots of them with never a
complaint. I've also transplanted lots here in my Zone 6 garden in SW
British Columbia, about a zone N of their current range (I imagine that they
carry more hardiness in their genes than has recently been called upon, or
may be called upon for some time).

Clambering around in PCI territory, I have noticed that although these
plants do grow in "well-drained soil", water trickles through it. It is
often sloping, but it is not always made of the garden equivalent of grit.
Where rainfall is low, these irises settle into a clay, or claylike,
substrate below meadow or scree. The point is that their roots do not dry
out.

A couple of years ago in the Siskiyous and N California I collected seeds of
PCIs whose flowers, with their diagnostic perianth tubes and such, had just
faded. I could not know for sure what species they were. I still don't know;
I'll find out this spring and next. But the seedlings, now robust, remain
where they germinated, in a deep tray of very open mix that has never been
allowed to dry out. The surface may be dry but down deep, the roots are
moist.

Paige

Paige Woodward
paige@hillkeep.ca
http://www.hillkeep.ca/

From: "Jane McGary" <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 4:54 PM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Iris lazica

At my former garden in the Cascade foothills, where winter lows were
usually about 15 F and occasionally a few degrees lower, I grew Iris
lazica and I. cretensis in the ground in well-drained soil, and they
suffered no damage and flowered well. I had one clump of I.
unguicularis in the bulb frame, where most of it still is because I
can't pry it out of the ground, and one in a raised planter sheltered
by a deck.

I. lazica seems to grow best with some afternoon shade (it is very
drought-tolerant), but it flowered better in full sun. I. cretensis
got a little shade in the morning. I moved the latter to my new
garden and planted it on a steep bank (a situation where it is seen
in the wild) because the soil is poorly drained. I haven't brought I.
lazica yet, and I. unguicularis is temporarily in a raised sand bed
until I find a better place for it.

SPeaking of irises, last fall I bought some Pacific Coast hybrid
irises that were shipped to me bare-root. I planted them in a
well-drained spot the day they arrived, but the majority of them have
failed to grow. Never again!

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

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