Bloom to death??

I had an iris this year that was absolutely beautiful and produced more blooms that I had ever seen on one plant. Then the rhizome seemd to be dead. I have never had this happen and want to know if one can literally bloom itself to death and if so, why do they do that????

I think I had one in a container just do that:lol: I've cut down the stalks and am keeping an eye out for increases. Wish I had an answer for you...I'll be watching this for one too.
I've had some that looked dead suddenly have up to 6 nubby little increases pop up out of nowhere. I think the longer season here may help with that too.

this sounds like 'bloom out'.

i do not know what causes it, maybe climate?

you can try and rescue the bloomed out rhizomes by burying them under about 2 inches or so of soil and hopefully they will send out new baby shoots in the fall.
some folks have had good success using a box of moist sand for the spent rhizomes.

This has pretty much the same info as GreenThumbs indicated: http://www.hort.net/lists/iris/jun00/msg00557.html

I don't know what causes it either, but this year I've read about lots of it happening.

I know there is one iris, can't remember the name now, something like Twilight ...thats not quite it but its a dark purple with bright orange beards with touch of red in it that does bloom itself to death. I will be looking it up today and post as soon as I find it again.

I have had it happen with Millennium Falcon, but now have a new one that didn't bloom so much. I have a Rare Treet that is about to bloom and has no increases. That may be another bloom out. I don't know exactly what causes bloom out but it seems that if the iris isn't very strong, it can make a new fan or it can bloom. If it blooms without making a new fan -- you have bloom out. How it fails to make the fan it needs instead of the bloom it doesn't is what I don't know and I have never met anyone who does. It may partly be its genetic programming.

Rare Treat is a poor grower in this area. I would try 'Classic Look' or some other TB plicata.

It may not do so well for me next year, but I do see a tiny new sprout coming out. Maybe it will survive after all. I already have Classic Look, too.

I finally see a bit of green on the side of the old rhizome ( mother rhizome?) Mine was "Little Sighs" a SDB. It just had blooms all over this past spring from every rhizome you could see!! They weren't even very big!

My Bluebeard's Ghost was a bloom out as was Dime, both SDBs. Dime put out a new shoot a few weeks ago, after I put it into a 4" market pot as part of a garden redesign (I used 1:1 Mir Gro Garden Soil and cheap mulch from Walmart). BG is still in its spot in the garden and it hasn't done anything /yet!

One year I had Little Bay Denoc suffer from bloom out. Many told me to dig it out and remove it -- it was worthless. I decided to experiment. On half the plant I cut back the stalks as I normally do. On the other I cut the stalk down to be hidden in the leaves of the plant and left it. Within 3 weeks, the side without stalks died, the side with the stalks in place had signs of increase. It was moved to a new location in the garden and 4 years later, I have a huge clump of LBD that will need divided. It's never suffered bloom out since!

Roni