reticulate iris, corydalis solida die

[Diane Whitehead]

Can anyone suggest why I have no luck with Corydalis solida
( named forms from Latvia) and various reticulate iris, including
diploid danfordiae from McMurtrie.

I have not planted any bulbs from the usual commercial sources,
so shouldn't have any diseases.

In the same area, various cyclamen species and several snowdrop
species thrive and mulltiply prodigiously.  (well, Galanthus reginae-
olgae multiplies only modestly).

This is an area that I water during the summer - not as often as
the vegetable garden, but every week or so.

[Susan Band]

Mice and voles love corydalis

[zephirine]

I, too, have lost all the  named varieties of C. solida I had ordered from Latvia, after one, max. 2 years: Blue Pearl, Blushing Girl, Anne-Marie, Vernion Snow, Penza strain, and also C. turtschaninovii Eiric The Red.
Which was a great surprise, and a pure mystery to me, since Corydalis solida is one of our natives here, found in great numbers in the woods around!
And grows happily, and multiplies, in my garden...
Reticulate irises don't thrive here except in very chosen places, due to excessive moisture (and poor drainage) in winter, I believe.

[Leena]

I don't know why Corydalis solida would disappear, but here are my experiences.
The oldest ones are now four years old (both penza strain and named cultivars), and most of them have grown well and increased, last year I saw the first self sown seedlings flower. They grow in my woodland bed, where hellebores seem to like it. The soil has lot of leaf mold and compost added to it and there is no waterlogging. I don't water them but there is mulch which keeps the soil moist and the trees offer semishade so that it is never hot. I have lost two bulbs, Snow in Spring after the second winter, and Corydalis cava after three years ( I'm glad there are seedlings from it growing). Blushing Girl is one which has not increased hardly at all in four years, but it has lived.
However the past winters have been very snowy which has protected the soil from freezing deep.
I hope this winter is not bad for them, there is very little snow now and it's been between -10 -20°C for the past week and the weather forecast says the same will continue.

I will add that my woodland beds are raised beds, and the disappearence of Snow in Spring was a surprise because right next to it Eric the Red is doing fine (so far).