Underplanting?

I was thinking of planting some pansies and violas at the feet of my new irises. Will that cause a problem? We do have problems with sun burn/scald on iris rhizomes in this zone so I was hoping to protect them with annual color for each season and covering bare dirt.

P

Sun scald is often fought by a light covering of dirt. I would ask people who have that same problem about the pansies etc. Can they grow in the hot sun. You could contact an iris club in AZ and ask. go to the AIS site www.iris.org then find region 15 and ask the RVP (who will be listed) for help.

I'm not in Az. I'm in Arkansas. I'm hoping it won't cause a moisture problem.

Sorry about that, Try region 22. Same advice, the locals know.

I planted Johnny Jump Ups over a year ago and they have multiplied so much (reseeded) that they've covered the rhizomes of my iris in that bed. I'm in Mesquite, NV where temps reach 118 in the summer with constant sun and have had no trouble with scalding (even of the many iris which have nothing covering the rhizomes) nor any trouble with the JJU's in the heat and severe sun.
Anne King

I've had a problem in one bed housing about 200 irises in my upper back yard that's quite sandy and just won't hold the water, and our 100+ summer temps have literally baked the poor guys. A friend started putting Gardner & Bloome Soil Building Compost on her beds every year and mixes it in right up to the plants, which always makes me shudder, but her irises are always beautiful year-round. So for the last couple of years each June I've been putting about a 1-1/2" layer on that bed right up to within 2" of each rhizome, and my plants look so much better than they used to. Then in late August I scrape most of it off and move the mulch to other beds to beef them up. I water a little bit during the summer to keep them looking pretty green, and of course that's where I have all my expensive plants because it's in the back. Interestingly enough, we live on a hillside and my front beds are in terraces, but that one bed at the top of the hill in the back is the only one that has this light sandy soil. Can't figure that one out! Anyway, my pansies grow well in the winter months but always die back when it heats up -- usually by May. So I don't know if pansies would be the answer. Sounds like bachngolf's Johnny Jump Ups would be a good choice, though. The friend I mentioned earlier intermingles plants like petunias with her irises, and everything in her yard always looks fantastic.

Never plant Violas near iris as they can and do cover and kill the iris here in OR...I keep the violas (rhizomus) only in my regular beds

D

Thanks for all your advice.Don't want to kill any of my new babies