Easiest Way to Cut Back Leaves?

Yes, cut the leaves back and clean up all dead or dying leaves all around each iris bed.

I doubt if Messenger will benefit the plant in autumn.

Hello
May i cut in?? i have so many questions? so i will apologize now.:)
two yrs ago i had a bed of irises( don't know what kind) small about 4-6 inches high, blue and yellow.
The previous owner of our home is a master gardener, we bought the house in Dec, 6 ft under snow. LOL i was amazed at all the stuff she had!!!!!!!!!!
My neighbor a master gardener also, gave me advice. I noticed in the iris bed ( 200) that they had tiny holes and were mushy. The neighbor told me it was irise borers. I have been reading your thread, is there a cure for it?? unfortunatly she told me to throw them away, so i wouldn't infect her garden . SO off went about 200 irises.
I have some that are taller , but i think i m doing everything wrong.:( i live in zone 5b.I cut them back but my rizones keep getting buried under mulch ect, or the coneflowers keep growing inbetween them.
I m starting to transplant some to make a new bed , what can i do to help them survive the winter, i m a bit confused. :) Is there a proper way to transplant them and a not good way to do it?
I don't now the type , a friend gave them to me, when she herd of my catasrophe.
thanks
sue

oh sorry i was rereading the thread and noticed pirls advice, hmmm i didn't cut back the roots , when i transplanted. I asked my neighbor (master gardener) she said no need to. I m begining to get a bad feeling about her, she always tells me the wrong thing i think. im so glad for this thread i have learned so much.
WE might be getting a big frost tomorrow, shoudl i go dig them up , cut back roots and replant, or can iwait a couple of days. ?
thanks everyone for all your help
sue

Some more advice.

Most people cut leaves for estetic reason other cut back and eliminate most of leaves after a freeze to eliminate or reduce iris borers.

Many here in the midatlantic allow the leaves to stay on for the winter as some days are sunny and warm enough to allow continued feeding of the plant through the sunlight. The early spring take off all dead or dying leaves and it is these leaves that have the eggs on them. For me it is a lot easier doing it this way because the leave come off easily with little work and during harsh winter the leaves act as a mulch for the rhizomes.
:)
Anita

thanks Antita
that makes alto of sense.

I wouldn't dig them up to cut the roots back. Since they are already in the ground I'd leave them alone. I have never cut back any roots from mine when I plant them. I don't know why you would cut them back except maybe when you mail them they are neater looking and the roots would maybe dry out a little in transit. I don't really know. But if you have them in the ground then I wouldn't worry about it at all.

i need to move them to another location and am jjust wondering proper steps to take in transplanting them . since i m new i didn't get any blooms this yr from them so i want to make sure i can get blooms next spring. :)
that is why i asked :)

Taynors - it's too late right now to transplant iris. They should have 6 weeks before the first frost. And it seems that there's frost on the pumpkin on a lot of places right now. You'll have the best possibility of blooms if you leave them in the ground. Is there some reason why you think that moving them would help them that I'm missing?

I divide in mid to late July here in zone 5 (a month after bloom). I lost a lot of sdbs last year when I planted them in August. I never disturb them once they are in the ground except to divide. Some years I don't get great bloom and others I do. It's their nature. I find bearded iris inconsistent, so I go for sibs and species and historic beardeds which are very consistent.

i need to move them becuse we are sodding over the old flower beds to minimize the work load in the yard. So i have to move them or store them for the winter. I m sorry i wasnt' to clear on that ( my bad) .
Would i be better off leaving them in the garage wrapped up and in hibernation ? then plant them in the early spring or wait until late summer?
thanks for all your help, sorry i was not to clear on my intentions :)

Do you mean that you are sodding over now or in the spring? Can you wait until then? You can certainly move the iris then although it will affect the bloom. They certainly won't bloom if you try to put them in storage over the winter. I'm not a cold land person but I'd get them into the ground the first thing in the spring when the chances of frost are past.

I've heard that people store them and they are OK but I would move them in the spring instead. You might even be able to wait until the SDB have bloomed to do your relandscaping.

taynors,

First, you need to ask your friend what type of irises she gave you. Different types have VERY different cultural needs, and you're likely to kill the irises if you guess wrong and give the wrong sort of care.

As Doss has told you, irises generally need to be planted at least 6 weeks before your first frost to give them time to root in before winter. If they are not rooted firmly in before winter, you may lose them to frost heaving and/or rot. Your best bet at this point is to pot up as many of the irises as possible and overwinter them in your house under lights or in sunny windows. If you have a cold frame (or can build one), you might be able to overwinter them successfully in that, as well.

It's possible, depending on the types of irises you have, that they could survive the winter bareroot hung in onion bags in a well-ventilated area out of direct sunlight where the temps don't fluctuate too much (like your basement). If your rhizomes are very small, however, or if they are a beardless type, that strategy won't work.

It is unlikely you will get much (or perhaps any) bloom next spring if you dig your irises now. Many irises take a year (or more) off from blooming after they have been dug and replanted. Your best bloom will come from irises that have been in the same spot, undisturbed, for 2-3 yrs.

I have some iris-related FAQs on my website that you may find helpful. You can find them here:

http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/shadowood/irisfaq.html

Laurie

Laurie, I agree, here is my experience! I tried to winter over bearded rhizomes when I moved here 4 years ago-I lost a lot. They prefer soil. I did, however, plant many beardless irises in an empty bed at a friend's house in October and they all survived-but took 2 years to bloom when transplanted here in the spring.

hmmm i guess it is a no win situation. I will do what i can ,but it looks like i will have to loose them. We need to do this landscapeing now while DH is home.
thanks again for the advice it helped alot , i will now what to do wwith irsises in the future
best
sue

Just reading about the 2" trim and wonder if it's too late for me here in CT to do that. I had no clue and just got the house last Nov where the previous owner had left the plant alone. I am afraid of those borrer things getting to my Iris.
Thanks

I vote yes - trim them back. My reason for removing (not ripping) the long older leaves is that they harbor slugs and neither slugs nor borers make irises better.

It is a good idea to trim back the leaves on iris, it looks neater and you won't have so much to clean up in the spring. I cut mine back to 3 or 4 inches, the length doesn't matter so much. The idea is to keep the bed cleaner, rotting leaves don't help the iris or any plant for that matter. If you have planted late it is a good idea to cover with a light mulch once the ground is frozen, I use straw. When I have planted really late I have had good luck with placing a brick or stone right on the rhyzome. The main reason we lose iris that are planted late is that they heave out of the ground with the freeze and thaw. The brick or stone keeps the plant in the ground, sounds crazy but it works fine, just be sure to remove it early in the spring.

I have also heard of using pine boughs to weight things down.

Since we're all iris lovers I can beg for help. I've wanted, but couldn't find, Champagne Elegance. While shopping, today, I found them at half price. I could plant them indoors or outdoors. Something tells me they might enjoy the cool indoor porch to get off to a good start.

Any thoughts?

boojum, pine boughs don't weigh the rhizomes down, they just help maintain consistent soil temp after the ground freezes so the irises aren't subjected to those potentially deadly freeze/thaw cycles.

Laurie

Ahhhh. I see.

I pull off brown or dead leaves through out the summer. After the first hard frost, I try to trim as many as I can.I hold the leaves together and shear them with a pair of cheap scissors. I toss the cast off blades into a bucket & dump into a bin to be taken away. If I don't get them all done in the fall, I finish the clean up in the spring before it gets warms.

Me, too!

I use BRIGHT colored scissors so I can find them easily when I lay them down. Getting forgetful in my old age....

This is how I like my iris to look in March.

Good tip on the bright colored scissors, Wanda!

The crocus look delightful in your picture...they might be a good companion bulb for Iris.
Both could be divided in summer.

The crocus are surviving despite the dogs "favoring" the deck behind them. Tough little buggers!

Ah, dogs....we used to have some, but now only cats. But the neighbors have 6 dogs, LOL.

i lift the mower deck and away i go-i mow them down to about 2-3in
Been doing this for yrs now-even had rebloomer that bloomed after the mowing!

What about your name tags???