Well, we don't have many men in white coats anymore, we just turn them out to live in the streets now.

It was too cold to do much chanting after I got home from work and lost any light left, so...... I had some wire fencing and made a cage around the iris, secured the cage with stakes, then I got creative. I have some larger foam pipe wrap that is open on one side so you can fit the wrap around the pipe. I cut a piece long enough to wrap around the stalk and bloom, and placed it so the open end will allow for the buds to keep pushing upward and outward. I then wrapped the cage in a large beach towel, and secured it with a garbage bag over the entire cage. This is the temp fix until I can run the lights out to it tomorrow. Hope it keeps the blooms warm and happy.

I am doing the tenting boogie too Leslie. Running about after the temps warm and then doing the reverse boogie as the temps drop..... really, we could set it to music.

When are the temps warming Bonnie?

midday here they get a bit above freezing. That is when I untent.

Keeping iris blooms from getting frozen. When we had rebloomers, we used overturned buckets.

I opened mine up this morning too Bonnie. Left the cage mostly covered but opened the top for sun and took off the foam around the bloom. Will be running home to cover it all back up after work. That Tenting Boogie better have a good beat because this is going to go on awhile!

Want you to know that Again & Again's bloom stalk is still alive and well, but growing very slowly. We are suppose to get very very cold tomorrow so I thought of not opening the tent. Will it be a problem for the bloom stalk to be without sun for a day or two?

Stems get weak without sun, Leslie. I have tried that in the distant past with spring bloom if we had a really cold spell after a warm winter. I would have lost them anyway to the week long sub freezing temps but keeping them from the sun made the stems weak and they sort of bent over after I took the tent off. Where they bent the stems were light green and thinner. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do and you do everything you can and then you lose the bloom anyway. sigh.....

You could give it some artificial light under the tent.

I have had kept some covered for three days straight with no ill effect. You do have the lights going right?

No lights today. It rained heavily yesterday so I had to bring the cord inside.

I was out in the yard putting up signs and thought that the "progress" Superhero was making was worth bragging about. I got this from Brad this Summer in one of his large "Summer Christmas boxes". I got four mid to smallish rhizomes. All zoomed up like mad.

Superhero



This one is doing well as well. Half of this bed is made up of Brad's offering; the other half is from my local friend who retired to Florida. This is by far the best bed as far as growth goes.

La Scala



Here is one of my leftovers, "Rare Edition". This bed needs dividing and soil augmentation/amending next Summer.