How long can rhizome last out of the ground?

The Lowe's in my area is selling some tall bearded iris rhizome for half price, but they look reallly brown and dried up. Is it possible that they are still viable plants? Any time I have purchased iris from grower/catalog, they felt heavy, and had some green on the fans.

Cheryl

if they are firm or hard probably still good .
i prefer to see a little green fan,
and firm rhizome

It is possible that they are still viable. I've left rhizomes out of the ground for 6 months before (on accident) and planted them later...and they bloomed the next year. Of course, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If you want to buy them, you may try potting them up and placing them in a sheltered area, as it is pretty late to be sticking them in the ground.

One word of caution about buying rhizomes from any "Mart" or home improvement store...I wouldn't count on them being true to name. In my experience, it's about a 50/50 chance that they'll be labeled correctly. However, if you just want some pretty flowers and don't care about the names, those are just fine.

This message was edited Nov 9, 2005 9:48 AM

HI Cheryl,

I agree w/ Flowerfrenzy, and to piggy back on what she said......................

In my experiences - by the time an iris is that dried up - - there is a likely chance that it'll live, but also many don't. (With store variety irises one never know just how long they have been out of the ground.) And if it does grow - - many times it could take up to 2 springs before you'll get a any blooms.

As FF said, many of these "market irises" sold at Home Depot, K-Mart, Lowe's, etc are not properly named iris. Sometimes one can get lucky and one or two are, but the majority of the time, (these irises sold in these stores) are only something that looks similar to a true named variety. Sometimes they are the wrong color all together. If it were me - - I wouldn't even bother. But, If you feel like taking a chance - - then give it a try......and maybe you'll get lucky. :-)

Like Tazzy said - - I too like to see a bit of green just to be sure they are alive in the first place.

~ Margie

Wow,

Thanks for the quick response, I have never purchased iris from a big box store, only from growers or catalog, and they have never looked so dry, but hey for a couple of bucks, and the effort to pot them up, just might be a good science experiment.

Cheryl