What went wrong ?

Of of several planted iris, only a few are blooming.

I planted them in July last year (as instructed) and they did fine. They developped leaves this spring and grew well, but for two of them this happened:

The plump rizhomes changed into a leathery, wringled substance. I have squeezed them and they are still hard and I don't think they rotted, although I can not be sure..
There are healthy foliage from the sides of the rhizome, but no flower buds/stalks.


The foliage on the 3 sides of the rhizome which have developped looks healthy so I think the new rhizomes which have grown are ok.

Should I dig and divide the rhizomes, cutting the "leathery, wringled" portion off, and replant the new baby rhizomes ?

How can I prevent the future rhizomes from going through this ??

I planted very shallowly (with the top of the rhizome exposed) in well draining soil.

What else can I do ?? Plant in a bed of pure sand ?

Any ideas ?

You did just fine as far as you've described. Don't move them though. Sometimes the babies just don't bloom the first season. Wandasflowers just put a photo up of an Iris that didn't bloom for three years. If you've got good green leaves, and the rhizomes don't smell, and you don't have bugs, then patience is the answer. You can skip the sand though. We have clay here and some people have tried to use sand instead of organic material to open up the soil. If you don't add a ton of sand you can end up with close to cement.

Why don't you tell us what you planted and give up links to the plantfiles and we'll enjoy what didn't come up?