Can I still start bulbs I dug last year?

(Hanging my head in shame!) I just got so overwhelmed with our November election - campaigned from August on...... Hate to waste these! Please advise.

What kind of condition are they in? As long as they don't have incredible Iris Rhizome rot, it would be worth a try. If they are moldy, there are things you can do. Iris are incredibly hardy.

There's no harm in planting them if you have the extra space for "maybes". If they are actual bulbs, plant them three times their height deep. If they are bearded rhizomes, plant them level with or slightly below the soil surface. If they are beardless rhizomes, they are almost certainly dead.

Laurie

Laurie--I'm always amazed at how detailed your answers are. You think of everything.

Wanda,

That's because I grow a bit of everything. ;-) When someone asks how to handle iris "bulbs", I'm never sure whether they're actually asking about one of the bulbous species or whether they are just using incorrect terminology for rhizomes. And even if they are asking about rhizomes, they could be bearded, beardless, or crested. YIKES!

Of course, it's *usually* pretty safe to assume they're asking about bearded irises, since beardeds are by far and away the most widely grown type.

Or maybe I just like to hear the sound of my own typing. ;-)

Laurie

Yes, rhizomes - yes, bearded.

Thanks for the advice. I am going to try......

I see this question has been resolved, but just for added info........
A couple years ago I dug a sizeable Sib iris for a co-worker in Sept, but we never connected and it sat outside.....all winter long. It was sitting in a grocery bag, nested in a box on the porch. Really no protection from our sub-zero Wisconsin weather at all. I chided myself several times over the winter for letting it go. In early spring, still sitting in the box totally neglected, I spotted green shoots! So I planted it, watered heavily--and it made it! Granted, I don't ever plan on doing that again, but it did reinforce for me the heartiness of the Siberians!

That is remarkable, MudGirl. Was the Sib bareroot, or was the rootball intact with its surrounding soil when you dug and stored it on your porch?

I sure wouldn't have expected a Sib to survive that sort of treatment.

Laurie

Laurie it was a large piece....dinner plate size....so there was definitely soil w/ in the massive root ball, but also around the perimeter there were lots of loose roots. I'd thought that maybe it was coming back because the sheer size of it protected the central part--but as it turned out the whole thing came back just like it had never rec'd such horrible treatment.

Yeah, I have some old fashioned lemon-lily type of grasslikefoliage thingys that I am trying to get rid of in several places. So I dig them up and throw the clumps over in the bushes thinking they will die over the winter and I won't have to bother with finding a new home for them - but do they die? Nah, they just keep growing right where they have been dumped... Maybe this would be a good thing to cross EV daylilies with to increase hardiness...probably wouldn't cross though.

Melissa overwintered extra TB iris roots in a wheelbarrow last year & they bloomed! tough little buggers, aren't they?

A few years ago we dug out a load of the dwarf bearded irises and threw them in a pail. Gave one pail away and the other stayed in the shade, in the driveway. Spotted them about two weeks ago. Some were dead but so many are thriving. FINALLY I planted them and they're happy and ready to bloom.
Left hosta out one year throughout a typical freezing winter and in spring they were as green as could be. They're still growing.

I had a sack of iris rizomes last fall that I didn't plant (shame on me). They lived in a paper sack in my garage all winter--no water, no dirt. They had been washed and cleaned up for sale. Just because I know how hardy they are here, I put them in the ground last week. They are growing little leaves already! Iris is something in my area that will grow in spite of what is done to them. I'm so glad! At least next year I'll have the blooms...