How to divide irises ?

Iam in the process of dividing my irises but think I read somewhere that you are suppose to discard the mother bulb and keep only the babies...is this right ? And what if it still has a few small babies on it, should I still throw it out ? I only know how to plant them, after that I'm lost..(lol)

If you have the extra room and the patience to wait for tiny increases to grow to blooming size, go ahead and replant the old mothers. But if your room is limited and you want the greatest bloom potential, plant only the largest unbloomed rhizomes from the clump, and find new homes for the others.

There are plenty of folks who would love to adopt and plant any old mothers you are ready to discard. Just put them in a bag marked "FREE IRISES" on your curb, and they'll be gone before you know it.

Laurie

Thanks laurief. Good thing I didn't discard the mothers. I have room but didn't know why you would discard it so I figured maybe it died after you split it up.

Each rz will only bloom once in its lifetime, so your bloomed rzs will never bloom again. In most cases, bloomed rzs go on to become mothers and grow new, small rzs (increases) from their sides. It is those increases that will grow to maturity and continue the cycle of bloom and increase.

Mother rzs will continue to grow new increases until they run out of energy, at which point they will simply dissolve away into the soil. Since most folks have a limited amount of garden space with which to work, and since most dividable clumps provide more rzs than folks want to replant into their own gardens, the old mothers are generally tossed out. Mothers who show no increase at the time of dividing may or may not grow any increases if they are replanted, so they can be a waste of time and space to replant.

Occasionally, a rz will bloom without ever growing any increases, creating a condition known as bloomout. Bloomout will result in loss of the plant.

Laurie

Thank you so much, I think I've got it now. It does sound like a waste of time to me. Gosh, am I the only one who didn't know this ? (I'm always the last to know everything ..(lol)

Great explanation Laurie! I hope I never have bloomout. Don't know if I could take it. I did have one instance where I divided iris and gave my extras to a friend. I thought I had bloomout but then my friend showed me pictures of the irises that had bloom and wouldn't you know I had given away all of the rzs of one of my iris. Luckily I was able to get it back in the garden but I am much more careful now!

I tend to keep the mother rz unless I get tons of babies off of her. Last year was really the first year I didn't replant some of the mother rzs.