trouble with dutch irises

I planted 100 dutch irises this fall ('blue magic', 'eye of the tiger' and 'bronze beauty'). Only about 20 have come up, and as of today, I only see three buds. What have I done wrong and what can I do to fix it? I planted them at their recommended depth, used bulb booster... umm... Let's see.... Oh, in December, we had a warm spell and many of them poked a few leaves through, but no buds came up and none poked through more than 2 or 3 inches.

Are these easy or difficult to grow?

Thanks for your help.
Harper

The weird winter weather was hard on a lot of spring bulbs. But for so many of them to be no-shows for you, I'm wondering if maybe voles or some other pest ate them... Can you dig up an area where you think they should be and see if there's any sign of the bulbs?

I prepared a circular bed for my Dutch irises. I dug out the soil to a depth of about a foot,mixed in a lot of compost and good topsoil. I then planted thirty six irises. Twenty of them came up but only eight bloomed. I am now finished with them and the bed will be used for plants other than irises. It seems that you had a greater failure rate than I did.

The ones I planted 2 years ago are blooming just fine now, but the ones I added last fall to another bed are pretty spotty about making their appearance... I'm really inclined to blame the wacky weather.

This was my first try with Dutch irises. There are a few in my neighborhood and I have always admired them. The twenty that came up reached a height of eighteen to twenty inches. Our winter was a little more severe than normal but I don't think that is what the problem was. They were in full sun with excellent soil. I have an in ground sprinkler system that kept the yard well watered but not over watered. I may try planting a few this fall in another bed. The photo shows the 'old' iris bed ready to be planted with something new.

This message was edited May 25, 2007 4:05 PM

Rocco, that would've been so pretty with the irises. Critter, I'm gonna check for signs 'critters'. I do have moles or voles in the back yard, but they're pretty obvious. I may just chalk it up to the weather.

thanks,
Harper