Mystery Iris Disease

I planted about 30 new varieties of iris last year. The foliage came up, but was hit by a cold spell in April. Since then, I have been loosing at least 1 per day. Today they may look very green and vigorious, and tomorrow the foliage is brown and dead. What in the world is going on? If you have any suggestions, please post.

Don't have a clue defoecat, but that is sad. Could you have borers ?

Might be borers or maybe slugs??? they will do damage quickly.. if you have had lots of rain..
Elaine

We have had lots of rain, but slugs have never been a problem here. I am planning on unearthing the rizomes, or see if there are rizomes left, and see what I find. My energies were directed toward the living plants today.

You won't usually notice iris borers. If you look at a leaf, you can see where there is a tiny tunnel running down the length. Sometimes you will see a tiny bit of sawdust beside a tiny hole in the rhizome. The the borer eats the iris from the inside out. They are nasty little creatures.

Could they possibly be planted too deep or perhaps too wet?

No, Joan, learned that lesson long ago. The tops of the rizomes are just barely covered with soil. Wet may be a problem, as this spring has been very generous with the rain for us. I will be digging some up and looking at them tomorrow, and hopefully have an idea about what is going on.

Mine are looking very bad too. Rough winter, late freeze and now pounding rain for a week. Think it may be the rain that is doing mine in.

susan

yes it has been a very tough season on my iris. I am waiting until the end of their bloom cycle then digging them up and replanting after cleaninf off all the rot. They looked so perfect before that extended late freeze. Still I have some blooms , and they are still beautiful even under stress.