Last falls Iris ordered from catalogs summery. Here is my spring Inventory on the 4 places I ordered from. Burgard Iris. !2 plants ordered all doing great ! Schreiners Iris. 11 plants ordered all doing great ! Springhill. 15 plants ordered 7 died 8 doing poorly ! Breck's. 9 plants ordered 6 died 3 doing OK ! Lesson here!!!! the first 2 were shipped to me in late August. the other 2 were sent to me in late, late October! I begged them to send them sooner but they said they knew better than me the planting time in my zone. This is one of those time that one size fits all does not apply!!! Our winter this year was very mild! not our usual -20 to -30 below. I will so never order from those 2 again. It remains to be seen if the Peony and Daylily plants I ordered from Breck's will make it! they have not shown there little heads as yet.
Whenever I order something a little off-season I tell them to rush the order, it's for "greenhouse breeding work." Yeah I'm a liar, lol. But they don't know that.
thepondlady & rockhound. Interesting comments & good to know. I have not had good experinces with Springhill in the past, but pondlady, you think it has to do with when the rhizomes were shipped? That makes sense. I had not thought of that. It does seem to be a no brainer that the longer time they have to grow roots before the freeze, the more likely they would succeed!?!
Springhill and Breck's don't get many good reviews from gardeners. It may be the product, the shipping method, or a problem with their growers, but there is a high death rate among their plants. Schreiners has been known as a premier supplier for years. I hope your surviving iris give you lots of pleasure!
Thanks for the info!!! Will let you know if my roses from Springhill make it. A few years ago i ordered the miniature roses from them and they were wonderful until i had to leave in 2008. The roses that i ordered this year are Freedom Roses...we will see.
