novice has question

I dug and separated a large group of iris. I have been told to discard the mother plant or the ones that have bloomed. I know that they won't bloom again, but........if I were to replant the mothers in a new location, will they continue to make increases that will then make new blooming iris. They are healthy looking rhizomes, just past their prime for bloom.

Yes, they will grow new babies if they are good, firm quality. I, like most people,
toss them since there are a lot of good rhizomes when a clump is divided. Just
plant them the same as any other rz and wait for the second year. The first year
the increases may not be of blooming size.

here's the rule I follow when dividing bearded irises -

black - no (unless you can cut off the black part)
withered - no
very soft - no
squishy - no
it stinks - no (that's rot)

everything else - replant!

rhizomes bloom, expending energy to reproduce through seeds. After one bloom cycle, they expend all their energy reproducing by cloning, making babies. mama rhizome is the babies' food (energy) storage system. When the food storage is spent, it blackens and withers. you can visibly see the difference.

Hint: if small babies get detached, I'll pot them up until they grow a bit, so they don't get lost.

Where are the seeds?

same as any other flower pretty much. Fertilization causes the ovary to swell into a pod where the seeds form. the pod matures and opens to scatter the seeds. the seeds I've made are about the size of a pea when first gathered.

But they can have false pregnancies, too. Pod forms but is empty. weird, huh?! my first try at hybridizing, I got mostly empty pods.

Is it that big long green thing that is at the top of the Iris? after the blooms fades?

This message was edited Nov 1, 2009 9:21 PM

if it swells and gets bigger AFTER the bloom fades, yes.