Walking Iris

Any one grow any of these ? Regards Paul

I do Paul. There are thre e differnt types that I know of. One has yellow flowers, one with blue and white and the one I grow which is neomarica gracilis, white with blue. Is there somethign specifically you are wanting to know about them?

Here's the one I have in bloom last spring. Not sure how to get the "babies to grow roots.

boojum, you have mail!

Lovely photo

boojum--That's a terrific picture.

Paul--I have walking iris that I received well over a year ago. Because I was told that they need to come inside in the winter, and because the person told me hers were in a pot, I put mine in a pot. They are beautiful and green and there are more in the pot now than what I started with. They have not bloomed, however, and I don't see any babies hanging over the edge. Our ground doesn't freeze here (don't have to dig dahlias, etc.) and I am thinking that in the spring I will plant them into a protected area of my gardens and watch them like a hawk. Until I saw the picture above, I had no idea what the flowers would look like. Now I'm even more anxious to find out why mine aren't blooming.

they should bloom for you in may

Paul--even in the pot? That would be great!

yes even in the pot make sure you feed theam tho

A while ago somebody posted a pic of w. iris in a hanging basket. very pretty. I have my babies growing in a hanging basket and hopefully getting that same look by next summer. The basket looks like spider plant but w/ those beautiful blue flowers.

They've been fed along with everything else that was outside, but I'll check to make sure they get whatever they might need. Thanks for the encouragment.

Wow, vossner. That would be gorgeous. I never thought of that. My pot is a big one. Are the hanging baskets big?

This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 2:26 PM

This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 2:27 PM

Mine sit in one gallon pots on my kitchen counter and the babies hang off the edge til I get a chance to cut and pot them up. When the weather is warm enough outside they go. I have left them outside over the winter here in pots and just mulche d with oak leaves and they did come back, but it took them quite awhile to recooperate.

1Gardengram.... did you start out with a tiny plant? Maybe they just need to grow up a bit more. I had young ones when I started and it took them a couple of years to get established before they starte d making flowers and babies. I don't know about anybody else, but I found mine flowered better when they were crowded.

when they get root bound they make babys

No, they weren't small plants. But they are not root bound yet either. Maybe I just need to give them more time, but then I didn't plan to give up on them. How would they get root bound if I planted them outside? Hmmmmm..........

The woman I got my starts from had taken an old wheelbarrol and had planted them in that. They had fille d the wheelbarrol and the babies was hanging all off and down the sides. Til then I had never seen such a thing and was more fasinate d with it than the garage sale items she was selling. Picked up a few sale items and and the last minte aske d her about this strange type of Iris. She told me about hers and gave me some starts.

Maybe you could do a pot-n-pot type thing outside so it will get rootbound. That would also make it easy to bring back in in the winter for you.

I would like to find some of the yellow variety to add to mine.

How does everyone pot up the babies. I keep waiting for roots to show but they never do.
Mine is in a pot and I never expected it to bloom the first year but it did. I water weekly with liquid fertilizer, facing out an east sun window, and they bloomed early in the spring (April I believe). It went outside in it's pot this summer and grew like a weed.

I don't know how anybody else does theirs but I cut part of the stem that the baby attached to with mine ( about 4 to 6" of stem) and take two or thre e babies and gently place them in the soil. I just stick them in far enough that the base of the baby is resting in a little bit of soil and then press the soil a bit around the baby to keep it in place. Til it develops a good root system I water very slowly near but just a bit away from the babies so as not to displace them.

Thanks for the great explanation!