Beginner iris question

Hello fellow iris lovers! I'm new to irises and quite ignorant :). I thought irises (in Michigan, zone 5b/6a) bloomed in mid to late June. A few of my irises have buds on them already. I was very surprised to see them...how long does it take from bud to bloom? Is it kinda early for buds? Most of my irises (all new transplants) have only nice, healthy looking foliage, but no buds.

Michelle

The time from bud to bloom can vary based on your weather. Warm temps speed things along and cooler temperatures drag it out longer. It roughly takes a couple weeks from when the bud appears before it opens.

Most of your irises will sleep the first spring after planting and will wait until their second spring to bloom. First spring blooms do happen, but aren't really the norm.

Hope you will post some pictures when the buds open!

Cathy

Very early blooming this year. My firs dwarf bloomed yesterday. Have to take a pic.

French Wine, SDB

Yippee it begins.
inanda

Michelle,

A lot of things influence when or if an iris will bloom. First you have to consider what type of irises you have planted. Reticulatas, for instance, can bloom while there's still snow on the ground. Japanese irises are, I believe, about the last of all the irises to bloom (exclusive of late season rebloomers). Among the bearded irises, bloom is successive from shortest to tallest, beginning with the miniature dwarfs and ending with the talls.

Then there's the weather, as already noted. All of those freezing temps in April really set things back ... or so I thought. To my absolute amazement, my first SDB opened this morning! I wasn't expecting my first blooms for at least another week.

As also noted, it's quite common for irises to take a year or two (or even longer) to settle in and start blooming once they have been added to a new garden. But irises are nothing if not delightfully unpredictable. Some first year irises will bloom.

Anticipation is half the fun of growing irises.

Enjoy the show, whatever and whenever it may be!

Laurie

Okay...here it is! My first bloom. I have no idea what it is. :)

Another view. I'm sure it's a pretty common iris, I just don't know the name. It's a little taller than waist high on me and I'm 5'3".

Here is a bud on another iris. I believe this is a different color, it may be the burgundy/cream iris that I dug out of a very old bed.

Michelle I have buds also but I think it will be a few days befor I get any blooms. Its been realy cool here I can't wait
Gloria

I was surprised that mine bloomed. Of course, the ones that did are in full sun all day against a brick wall..that probably helps!

Michelle

I am in zone 5b and had one (of 3 dwarfs) bloom-1 bud. There are 4 buds on 3 different irises, so I hope to have some blooms here soon. Karen