Juno Iris cultivation help please!!??

[Paul T]

Andrew,

I've asked myself many times how I could lose bucharica.  They looked just fine as plants.... I blame my growing, not the supplier.  I added extra sand to increase drainage, but maybe I kept things too dry in summer?  I really don't know.  With my new plants I've made a sandy mix this time for the junos, have watered them in once to settle them, but from here I am assuming I keep them fairly dry until they show signs of growth above ground?  I know htey have the tuberous roots below the bulb, so those need enough mostire to say alive, but not enough to rot everything.  A fine balance between enough and too much I guess?  One thing I haven't done is put in any granular fertiliser like I do with other bulbs..... I'm assuming that they would be preferring less in the way of fertiliser?

With storing dry over summer, do you mean in the pots, or actually knocked out and dried?  I realise if the pots are large enough that some moisture would be kept to keep the roots below the bulb alive, but if stored completely dry wouldn't those tuberous roots shrivel to the detriment of the plant?

[Andrew]

Andrew,

With storing dry over summer, do you mean in the pots, or actually knocked out and dried?  I realise if the pots are large enough that some moisture would be kept to keep the roots below the bulb alive, but if stored completely dry wouldn't those tuberous roots shrivel to the detriment of the plant?

They are stored in their clay pots which dry out completely. The roots may shrivel a bit but the plants survive and increase, maybe not as quickly as they could but I am sure we would all rather keep a plant alive than rot it off.

Some of the others that have increased have been split, replanted into clay and plastic pots. I wonder if any difference will be visible ?

PS A juno has died in my care(?) when I first started .

[David Nicholson]

Paul, I hope this doesn't make you tear your hair out.

Back in April last year I bought a 3 litre pot of Iris bucharica in a Garden Centre clearance sale for £1-picture below. It sat on my patio from the end of April until the middle of August through one of the wettest Summers on record when I moved it into the greenhouse. In September I wondered if I should re-pot it, had a look and it was still very damp. I decided to repot it it any case and thought I might split it. I repotted the bulk of it in a 2 litre pot and made 4 smaller pots for the offsets. Back they all went onto the patio. I checked them today, having completely forgotten about them to find good strong shoots in all the pots. Now all I have to do is flower them!

[Paul T]

David,

Oh Yes, I remember you telling us about it originally.  The term "clearance" was enough to bring tears to my eyes...... in fact I think when you got to the mention of the garden centre was enough. Never here!!

[Susan Band]

I don't really like admitting to it in case someone follows my lead and kills of their collection. But, I grow all my Junos outside in well drained beds and don't lift them in the summer, as David said it was very wet last year. They don't start dying down for me until late August and I feel what is the point of lifting them then. So far I have tried easier growing hybrids but last Autumn planted some more difficult ones (report later in the season) The hybrids have all bulked up well, most have been split, and are pushing up their noses at the moment.
Here are some picture of the ones that have been doing well for the last 3 or 4 years.
Iris Argument, Iris Blue Mystery, Iris New Argument

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I was always lead to believe that the "difficult" Juno's would simply be killed by rain after flowering... which is why they are kept under glass by the specialists ?

I don't want to offend anyone, but I do think you get some rain every now and then in Scotland ?

[Susan Band]

Yes luc, we do get a little bit of rain here, this year it has been worse than ever. I think it has, with the exception of September, rained here nearly every day since June   It might be an expensive experiment trying the other Iris outside, but what the heck you have to try.

[Otto Fauser]

Paul ,I have over the last 40 or so years raised many Junos from seed-a lot from Russian Botanic Gardens-they used to be very generous years ago to share seeds with strangers like myself.But over the years i have lost just as many. which is so frustrating, as they and the Oncocyclus are amongst the most beautyful of all flowers- to my mind. As a general rule the smaller species are more difficult to grow and keep than the taller growing ones. Sadly, amongst the losses  which can not be replaced
as they are no longer in cultivation , as far as I know,were I.stocksii , doabensis and baldshuanica,
all from Afghanistan.
 Tony Hall, who used to be in charge of the most comprehensive Juno collection anywhere,at the Botanic Gardens KEW, London,was here in Melbourne a few years ago and gave a fascinating lecture,
and showed slides of every species in cultivation there.He is working on a monograph of Junos.
   but most important: he left 2 pages of cultural notes  ,I will post a copy to you in the next few days

[Hans A.]

Hello Otto,
indeed your comments are not very motivating - how did you cultivate them? - in a greenhouse? -
I try to grow some of the more western species (also Oncos) which come from similar (climatical) areas as mine - till now they do well in the open ground in the garden - surprisingly also the more eastern distributed species which have lower temperatures in their habitat.