All of us Iris Lovers have experienced soft rot, leaf spot, borers, that dreaded crunching sound of a broken stalk or watching the innocent neighbor girl learning to ride her bike take a dive into a clump of hard work and love and get that sick feeling. My wife backed over a fan of Cherokee Blaze one morning that I had been waiting to see for 2 years. When I found it I was so upset I wanted to yell some really bad stuff at her. Seriously decided to trust the man upstairs and let it go. The bloom stalk came straight up out of the bulb soon after. It's was and is a beautiful Iris! True story. This year it has 3 bloom stalks reaching for the sky😀. In regards to some Iris seem to be fine in all conditions and some fall over and rot for no reason I think each new Iris cross carries the genes both good and bad of its parents and their parents. They are like each of us, unique in their own way and some are just not as healthy as others especially with all the complex crosses being done today we are seeing the effects of inbreeding in my opinion. Iowa winters and weather are hostile to say the least.
