Mulching for winter

When is the time to mulch new irises for winter? Before or after the ground freezes?

Not ignoring you hun:) In my zone I don't deliberately mulch. Even years back when we actually had cold winters:lol: I do clean up all the dead/dying iris foliage--I let any falling tree leaves that get blown into the bed stay but that's about it for me.


Hopefully someone who grows iris in your zone will chime in with real answers:lol: We had iris when I lived in CT as a kid but I don't remember my mom ever mulching them either and in the 70's winters were frozen and snowy up there.

This message was edited Aug 8, 2009 2:17 PM

We use pine needles as a winter mulch to prevent heaving. The are put down after ground freezes. If you get an early snow cover that is a good winter mulch--we had cover all winter. last yr. Our ground usually does not stay frozen so a mulch is helpful. If you ground stays frozen all winter, a mulch shouldn't be necessary with plants which have been in place for several yrs. New plantings can need help the first yr. Constant freeze & thaw (known as an open winter here) is very destructive. We are zone 6a.

Yes, we have had erratic freeze/thaw patterns for years, and we are zone 4b. So after freeze is the best time? If it was before the ground freezes you would have to worry about critters tunneling under the mulch and snacking all winter?

See I knew someone would show up and tell me I got it wrong:lol: Glad to have gotten the ball rolling:lol: Gonna go edit my post and remove my mis-informed guess:lol:

As far as pine needles, I am planning on just chopping off some evergreen branches and cutting them into bits. I think we have spruce and juniper. The idea is something that will not mat down into moisture holding sponges, right? I am also bending pieces of metal fence panels to make short hoops to discourage the deer from stomping around. Then I will put up posts to hold the hoops down, and tie on some clankers and bangers. These are just my new babies that I am talking about. Everything looks good so far. We just got rain so they are putting down their roots for their long winter nap...

Sounds like good deer protection. Remove mulch in early april.

I will be using pine needles here also as Polly K suggested to me. Have not used them before and they take awhile to establish here so it should help.

while we have our own pine trees, we also get them from a neighbors pines. they are glad to let us have them. DH makes a pile of the needles & then works from there, depending on the conditions in the bed,

I've put evergreen branches (cut from defunct Christmas trees) over my iris bed some winters... definitely helps with freeze/thaw heaving, and the branches are easy to remove in early spring.

True, but difficult to get enough brances here.

Hit the streets a week or so after Christmas... you can usually find a few trees curbside! Of course, I suspect you have an awful lot of iris bed area to cover... ;-)

the town collects the trees for a burn in the park. We use our own branches over the seedling boxes. Our neighbors pine trees produce a log of needles which are spread by early Dec. I suspect the ground freezes earlier here.

This is one of the main questions that I need answered. We live in MN from May to Oct. & then back to homeland, NE for the other 6 months. (Retired of course) The last 2 years I have lost at least 60 to 80 Iris each year. Minnesotan's say that this is unusual to have these late snow/freezes in April. So, before we leave in late Oct., I WILL put some type of cover over the most vulnerable. What is the best? I wonder if I could put batting that they use on seeding grass? I put this around some rose bushes as an experiment & was pleasantly surprised.

The other alternative would be to leave my husband at home and come up in April. He wouldn't like that very much. Your advice is appreciated.
Sharon

I am wondering if flat rocks over the slightly sloped root area would be good. It would sure hold them down and moderate the soil temp. Hmmm.....think I will try it on a few.

People in Maine often use Remay for winter mulch. You could ask those on this forum who use it or see it used to comment.

Thank you, IrisMA! All I needed was a name of something that might work. If it works in MA, why not MN? I Googled and found many outlets for Reemay and asked one company for a free sample. I have a feeling they only want to sell
to large 'farms' but we'll see. I'll keep you posted. I do appreciate your input!

The people in Maine don't have large places, so there should be dealers.