Questions for irisarians:
In beds where iris are finished blooming, can I dig them up, amend the soil, and replant now, or should I wait till July or August?
About half of the iris I added last year didn't bloom -- some just need another year, and some of them might need a sunnier location. Can I move them this year, or would it be better to give them another year in the same place, regardless of conditions?
(picture is of new NOID)
I would think now is fine. the books say summer after bloom but I have divided some last
fall. and a couple weeks ago i divided the rest.
I would think if you want to move the others, I would think anytime you want.
If you move your irises this summer, you'll be setting them back in terms of resuming a regular bloom cycle and will probably get minimal bloom next year. But if your irises are in an area where they receive less than 6 hrs of direct sunlight a day, you probably won't get great bloom, anyway. If that's the case, you're between the proverbial rock and a hard place, so you may as well go ahead and move them into a sunnier location now. At least if you get them into a sunny location you can look forward to getting nice bloom out of them in a couple of years.
Laurie
Thanks. I'll do that.
I wish I could figure out a way to amend the soil/add compost in some of my iris beds without having to dig up all the rhizomes. It's so sandy here, it's crazy, you can add compost all day and it still looks and feels like sand -- but I guess iris don't mind that so much.
You can always use alfalfa around them - not too newar to the rhz. - and use alfalfa tea when you water. Of course I don't know how many iris you have.
If using alfalfa, only use pure alfafa, Make sure there is not corn in it. Corn is a growth inhibitor.
inanda
