what is wrong with my cemetary irises?

I've had White Cemetery Iris (Iris albicans) for years and never had any trouble with them. The have been disease free and multiply and bloom freely. The leaves even stay green all year in the hot Florida sun. In one of my beds the leaves just turned brown all the sudden and the tubers are mushy. In the space of two weeks it went from beautiful blue/green leaves to total brown. The other beds are fine. Any ideas?

Beth

mushy tubers = rot. something all irises get from time to time, but cemetary irises are not as susceptible to, IMO


cure = none. Remove all the browned leaves, mushy tubers, and all the soil around them that touched them - burn it all. composting it will spread the disease. If you get it out of there now, it may not spread to your other beds.

Then I'd sprinkle the area heavily with comet - you read that right, COMET, a chlorine based cleanser, but should stay in place longer. Or you can drench the infected area in at least a 20% bleach solution. same thing.

Those are the primary effects of Roundup. It is absorbed into the leaves and travels down to and destroys the roots--rhizomes in this case. Takes about 10 to 15 days to complete the process.

I have a "vintage" mandeville planted right in the middle of them that doesn't seem to be affected. Mandeville's aren't hardy in NW FL but I have managed to keep this one alive by babying it during the winter. I can't pore bleach, comet or roundup on the bed it will kill the mandeville too. Any other ideas?

I will definitely dig out all the mushy tubers. Is it safe to save any tubers from that bed that are not mushy?

Once the non-mushies are out of the bed do the bleach trick with them, & see if they stay solid. That way you spare your other plants. Plant in a different spot.

ok, let me get this straight. you think the rot won't affect the mandeville and I put the bleach on the GOOD tubers from that bed once I have removed them?! Willing to try... just not used to putting bleach on plants I want to keep :) Thanks for your help Iris!

No remove the iris plants first & give those irises the bleach soak.

yeah, that's what I meant :) OK, I dug them up got maybe 7 or 8 out of 50 that were good. I'll try the bleach thing now.

Anybody have any ideas what else to plant in that bed that is resistant to rot. Drainage is usually never an issue is Florida, our unamended soil being about 75% sand...But we did get a lot of rain over the entire week this past week, 6" in on day alone - Thanks Alex :(