Help - Now

There is a wonderful home slated for removal this week, I talked to the guy in charge and they said I can dig out the Iris bed... here is the kicker it is 99 today! How can I keep these wonders alive. By the way they are Tall Beards. Need to know soon - Mitch

Just go ahead and dig them. Either pot them up and keep the pots in a shady spot until you plant them out this fall, or hang the rhizomes bareroot in onion bags somewhere out of the weather and out of direct sunlight with excellent air circulation until you're ready to plant.

They'll be fine either way.

Laurie

Bless your heart Mitch for digging in 99 degree heat! I hope they prove worth it. Laurie's advice is great. Whatever you do, don't wet them down thinking that will help them with the heat. Water+heat=rot in the iris world. Like she said, you can store the rhizomes as long as they have good air circulation.
Good Luck!
Merlie

Alright I will get them pulled up in bags till fall! hey you got to save what you can right? Thanks Mitch

You lucky thing. I go scrounging/mooching around Winnipeg on my bike, checking up on all iris/lilium where there are boarded up houses. Best haul was a bunch of martagons last summer. Yum yum. Dalhansonii but still exciting. Scored with a paeony last week.
Inanda.

wow nothing that great just 200 or so Iris . . . to bad you arent down here or you could help me get them all dug out!

It would be best to start at daybreak. Cooler on you and less plant shock!

I did something similar once, if you wanted, you could put some in pots until fall. That would increase you chance of blooms next spring by allowing the plant to grow throughout the summer.

I've grown irises for many years and when we were given some, one June, I just cut them back into the standard fan shape and then planted them and they did fine.

Why would he have to hold them in onion bags for months? Obviously I'm not getting it and feel quite blonde this morning. LOL

Transplanting in full sun in 99 degree weather is not recommended for any plant, including irises. That sort of heat is just too hard on a newly set plant. The plant will experience much less stress and root in more quickly in more reasonable temps later in the season.

Laurie, I respect your knowledge and will listen to you. Cooley's always sent me the plants in very late July. I remember it clearly because of my late July birthday. I thought they meant for us to plant them on arrival, not hold them. Late July is generally our hottest weather.

I'm sure there are plenty of folks who plant bearded irises in extraordinarily hot weather with few problems, but I also know gardeners in hot climates generally wait to plant bearded irises in the fall. Here in the northland, I try to get all irises in the ground no later than the end of July because first frost comes so early in MN. My irises need all the rooting-in time they can get. But our temps don't reach 99 degrees.

Bottom line is, if it works, do it. If planting in July in your climate works for you, by all means don't feel like you should be waiting until fall.

Laurie

Tell ya what I will cut the pile in 1/3rds, one in the garden now, one in the shed in onion bags, and the last set in pot in the shade. I will let you all know what ones are best! Kinda hard to know but I have to try to save what I can right? I just cannot think they would let all these wonderful flowers go to waste... Mitch

That's an excellent idea, Mitch, and an experiment from which many folks stand to benefit. Just make sure you split each clump so you have a piece of each cultivar in each of the three trial situations.

Good luck!

Laurie

Mitch,
Your story makes me want to drive through our countryside and look for abandoned falling down farm houses and forgotten garden treasures.
Happy Digging
Dovey

I will try they are not split up to well -LOL so they kinda blend into each other. They have been there 20 orso yearseach and a few even more! Mitch

Mitch,
Look at it this way.
The 1/3 that you keep in onion bags to plant in the fall can be your trade pile. You can use these to trade with them all fall long and receive lots of new plants here at DG people maybe?
Just an idea. Tho it is a hint too. I am new at irises and got a few fans from Cooleys field a month ago. I found some for $4/each that were very fragrant.
Carol

LOL - I will keep you in mind! That was my thoughts fall trades - hey around 100 roots that could bring a couple of plants....

I was in a similar situation... My mom decided to get rid of a bunch of iris and i found them a few days later in her compost pile. I live in the desert and felt a few months of hanging here would surely desiccate most anything. Potting up my orphans seemed the safest thing to do, but time consuming, and it would take up so much space! What i ended up doing was getting several of those "under bed" tupperware type containers (very long and not too deep) i drilled holes in the bottom, put them up on a few bricks and added just a few inches of soil. I planted the iris "french intensive" style (very crowded) knowing it wasn't permanent. I put the boxes in my very well lit, but much cooler than the outside (high 90s and low 100s) garage. They stayed there being very lightly watered for almost three months. When they hit the ground they were plump and happy. I got many blooms the following year (last) and this year they were outstanding.

Melissa

Now that is one super idea for those of us who want to do over an entire iris bed. I will be using it. Thanks so much. The bloom the next year is the part I adore. You sweat and work so hard at improving the earth, then receive the irises and you hardly ever get bloom the next year. At my age I do NOT want to wait.

Very good idea- that will be my potted ones... there are so many I am still trying to get them all done..

We had 93 degrees on Tuesday ,but a rain storm came thru and it's 69 degrees today. I can get away with transplanting anything until August heat & draught. I just cut the tops down so there is more root/less green to support. We're going to be looking for photos of your rescued iris next spring, Mitch.

I will -if they make it- Mitch

Mitch they'll make it!! As long as they don't rot from too much moisture .... Iris are TOUGH especially the old ones!!!

Judy

See that is what I want to hear - they are living with no water and in tons of weeds now! I can at least give him a little bit more then that. Mitch

I'm glad to hear that you guys are saving the flowers from the greedy jaws of the developers...There was a woman who lived a couple miles down the road from us who had a very large garden of irises, daylilies, etc. I always wanted to visit her garden, but I was always put off by the large sign she had posted -( one of the more intimidating and judgemental quotes from the Bible...) Well she died, the sign came down, the property was sold, and before you could blink, the bulldozers came and dug up the whole wonderful yard. ALL of the trees were cut down. This is a farm in Iowa, by the way. It is totally incomprehensible to me that someone could do this...must be one of those lawn freaks that mow their acres of lawn for a hobby...(Not quite sure what all this blather has to do with this thread!)

Sounds like it does to me caitlinsgarden! I hear ya all the old farm houses around here are being sold and developed into huge housing developments. Everything must go - this is the first time I got one of them to say I could go on the land and dig (I have lots of ones that ummm popped right into my yard!) I still call and ask - have to try. I have found some realtors will give you the heads up and new owners name so you can call right before they tear up a place, I am working on that right now building a few people who can call me up and tip my hand.... worth trying there to.

The wonderful person who taught me to garden when I was 27 and she was 68 died at 102 two years ago. Her flower garden was the plot between her house and mine but I had sold the house in '92. Her son had a stroke while preparing for his mother's service and died 25 days after she did. People bought the house and plot and tore down the house and plowed out the gardens - never even offered anything to the neighbors. I'm so glad she gave me so many plants over the years. Her name was Pauline Isabelle Reid Loeffler and, therefore, I am "pirl". I'll never go down that block again!

I love plants that have good stories with them....

Living proof that I'm a born blonde! The folks who bought my house ripped out the lovely 15 year old Magnolia, all the gardens in the back, including the Japanese Red Maple I was offered $5,000. for as well as the 1069 bulbs going down the driveway! Spit on her! Then she had the nerve to say, after the memorial service, where I gave the euology, "How could you say you had gardens when there wasn't a plant here when we bought your house?" Spit on her twice! I was a lady and simply turned my back and walked away. Ignorance can be helped out but stupid is forever.

That is terrible! I cannot believe she would have the nerve.. .. .. I know if we sell I am going to pot up and taek everything that I can cause most people just dont care really sad but I have seen it time and time again here they come in cut everything down and plant one tree calling it done.

Now I live next to a gal who loves her vegetable garden from the previous owner, Dorothy Robohm, who, at almost 96, is alive and well and I still send reports about "her garden" and how lovely it all looks. The "new" owner, of 10 years, is not a flower fancier but never hurt one plant. I find it admirable to take care of things you may not be fond of but to honor the former owner.

yep - I am with you there. it makes good logic in the pocketbook to if you can keep them. When we bought this place it had nothing but a few shrubs and a red maple (one tree on a over sized lot with a row a sick shrubs all around the house) so half the shrubs have had to come out but the tree is great, just wish they had planted a few more! They were big yard people so we have a great yard of grass I am tring to carve beds into without tearing out all the perfect lawn.

If I move, I'm going to dig samples of everything & then put a big sign out front : FREE to discerning gardeners only. They can have my ditchlilies & wildflowers otherwise!

LOL - there was a lady a few years back on Free cycle that placed a come and get it fo everything left in her yard. I did not have my own yard then and I could not go for it but I know others who did - they said there were a few fights even over lilies.

Wanda - we should all contribute to a basic 10 question test for anyone who wants a plant if any of us move. That would show us if they know a darn thing about what a plant needs to survive....and thrive.

Maybe there could be a standard test! We could get Dave to add it to the extras.

Maybe we could just ask each person to give the name of any five plants - the botanical name, and see what they come up with?

Gee. I like the purdy ones.... I'm not sure if my tired old brain could handle a test.

You could always ask for some time to study!