Iris Help, Please

I have several Iris from a co-op last year, plus a few from nursery purchases, and none of them has shown any signs of blooming. I was told that the tuber should be right at, or slightly above the surface, and the tubers are visible on all of mine. They are a bit crowded, there are other plants shading the tuber. Would that keep them from blooming? If I need to move them, can I do it now? I'll have to dig some new beds if they need more room. Do they need any special type of fertilizer? The leaves look healthy, but they're just not happy enough to bloom.

Thanks,
Deb

Sometimes it takes an extra yr for the plants to reach blooming size. The increase you see now will be next yrs. bloome and the small increases forming will bloom in '09.

Just a quick thought. My batting average for first year blooms
is less than 50%, depending upon the freshness of the plants
and the time of replanting. When I dig and replant, I usually
let mine dry for at least a month and try to replant by early
august. It seems that the earlier you can replant the more
likely they may bloom the next year. If you have them at ground
level and they have healthy leaves, don't be disappointed. You
will have a good second year bloom. Go sparingly on the
fertilizer. If you have the nice blue-green leaves you do not
need any. If you want to add a little extra nutrients go with
very low nitrate (N) medium phosphate (P) and medium potash
(K). 5-10-10, 5-20-20, or, as I found some at a FS dealer,
9-25-25. Anything higher than N=5, cut the application in half.
Spraying miracle grow on them wets them too much and I
would avoid any liquid spray fertilizer.

There are many very nice and knowledgeable people on this
forum who have forgotten more about irises than I will ever
know. Some of them will surely help you.



This message was edited Jul 5, 2008 8:13 AM

It is not at all uncommon for newly transplanted irises to need a year or two (or sometimes more) to settle into their new location before resuming a regular bloom cycle. If your irises are crowded by other plants, however, they may struggle for their fair share of water, soil nutrients, and sunlight. If they are deprived of any or all of those, their bloom performance will suffer.

If you move your irises now to give them more room, they again may need an extra year to settle into their new locations before blooming, so you may not get much or any bloom next year, either. Instead, consider moving the other plants that are crowding them and leaving the irises in place so that they will hopefully bloom next spring. I'm assuming that the irises are currently planted in a bed where they will receive full sun once the other plants that are shading them are removed.

Fertilizer should be applied on an as needed basis. I highly recommend you have your soil tested before applying any fertilizer so that you know exactly what your soil needs, if anything. Overfertilization can damage your soil and plants moreso than underfertilization.

Laurie

You don't need to let them dry for a month a day or two is fine.

Thank you all so much for your help. I guess I was being impatient wanting flowers this year! I will move some of the other plants surrounding my Iris, too.

Deb

The reason I let mine dry for about a month is just time. By the time
I dig, sort, wash, sterilize, fork, amend and replant, it takes about a
month. That is only my small garden with a hundred or so plants.
Lord knows how you folks with large plots get it all done.

As far as requiring fresh rhizomes to plant, a couple of years ago
I found some 'pass the wine' rhizomes which had been marked down
to 75 cents due to being late in the season. Possibly late October.
I put them in an old refrigerator (where I keep my beer and night
crawlers) crisper drawer. Next spring, as soon as the ground
warmed and thawed, I planted them just to see if they would
survive. Out of 12, 11 made it ok and the 12th one I had pulled
to see if it was still alive. I went on to transplant then in July
and they did great.

My area is on the border of 5b and 6a and frost heaving has been
a problem with my fall planted iris. We can have 70 in late January,
10 in mid February, 80 in late February and solid ice in mid March.
Spring planting can work but it typically costs an additional year.

We use a pine needle mulch after the ground is frozen to prevent heaving. Mulch is removed early April.Our zone is 6a.

I haven't tried mulching since the weather is so unstable and pine needles
or their equivalent are not readily available. One of the contributors, I
think it may have been Laurief, passed along the idea of leaving the long
roots on the rhizomes for stability against new plants blowing over in the
wind. I will try that in hopes it will help prevent heaving. I have had the
rhizomes sitting actually above the ground balanced on the short roots
after my heavy trimming.

Local straw is not an option since I end up with a wheat field every time
I have used it for mulching grass seed.

I hope you didn't have the really bummer year I had this year. I had such
a good bloom, 6 and 8 stalks on some of my 3 year clusters, and then
was hit with several ts's in a row. Heavy rain and 40-50 mph winds.
A lot of my best were nearly flat on the ground. I managed to prop
them up with 3 ft dowel rods. Maybe next year will be better.

Thanks for your advice. I will come up with something next year--
my dig and separate year.

oldgardenrose- this year that 's what happened to me six days before my first ever entry into an iris show! over half of my stalks ended up on the ground on Tuesday - and the show was on Saturday!

This message was edited Jul 5, 2008 8:34 PM

To feel joy you must first feel pain. I think we have had our share of pain
and I, for one, am looking forward to joy next May.

oldgardenrose - I love roses almost as much as iris!

the trick with irises - you have so many planted and so many favorites that you can withstand the lost of one! or 20! or .....

Each one is like a child. How could a grandfather not love a face like this?

That photo is just lovely. I have a question, though. It looks like you all have a lot of spacing between plants. Do they dislike being crowded? Or, will they do OK in an overgrown bed? I have moved a few out of the jumble of assorted perennials I have in my beds, but if the primary reason mine didn't bloom is just because they need a year or so to settle in, then maybe I will leave everything as is.

Irises dislike being crowded. They like lots of air circulation around their leaves and lots of sunny warmth around their rhizomes. They do not appreciate having to compete with other plants. You'd do best to remove the "jumble" and give your irises some space to grow.

Laurie

The conventional wisdom, if there is such a thing, says space them according
to the appearance you wish to present. Near solid mass planting would be
12 inches or less. They will spread together into a solid mass of rhizomes by
the second year. They will probably become unhealthy due to lack of food,
sunlight and ventilation. The next best would be 24 inches apart and would
need thinning probably the third year. 36 inches is good for four years and
leaves some room between plants for maintenance. Weeding, maybe
using a "garden weezil" and pulling off old leaves. That has been my
experience but maybe some of the other contributors could give you some
more ideas.

I just gave a "GI haircut" to about 30 of mine today due to severe leaf
spotting. This is the third year for close to 24 inch separation and, when
they were blooming, I couldn't tell which cluster had the bloom stalk.

I use raised beds due to the yellow clay in my area and space is at a premium.
I usually crowd the rhizomes and then regret it when they spread so much.

(giggle) I do it to irises, too, and roses... and hostas and canna, and colocasias......

eddited to add - guess I'm what ya call an equal opportunity "oh my gosh, where am I going to put this one?" kinda grower.

This message was edited Jul 5, 2008 10:29 PM

I had a neighbor lady who was really into gardening tell me "if you can see
dirt you don't have enough flowers". That was fine with her daylilies but
it doesn't work with irises.

In the northeast some people use salt marsh hay which doesn't turn into a wheat field. smaller iris are more apt to heave. If you can get bricks, put them on the rhizomes of the plants most apt to heave. Of course where we are we have a great supply of rocks. I put them on an arilbred seedling which came home in late sept. I realize that all that won't do in your area--keeping the roots long does give plants something to hold onto. the earlier you can replant is helpful. Our new plants are ordered for July and with luck I can get plants seprarated here at the same time. Our club sale is July 26 so those plants will be dug in about 2 wks.

I was told some time ago never to use straw or hay because it tends to mold which promotes rot in irises. I know a commercial small grower up in the VA foothills that always mulches and uses wood chips.

Had 8 rebloomers I wanted to give some more nutrients, water and mulch to, so they and 5 TB and 4 SDB were planted in a chip-mulched (new rose) bed as an experiment. A new iris bed, both on same slope, is next to it unmulched. Hint: No chips directly on the rhizomes.

Even with our heavy spring rains, I must say they have done as well growing as the unmulched bed nearby. First year bloom percentages were lower by about 15%-20%.

I've had to spend maybe a total of fifteen minutes weeding the mulched bed, compared to around 30 hours weeding the unmulched bed. It is eight times the size. so if they were the same size, figure weeding 2 hours mulched vs. 30 hours unmulched. Figuring it took about 0.5 hours to mulch the bed at planting. I'd give up a few blooms for that!

I use sawdust for mulch, I buy it by the truckload at sawmills, works great just keep it away from the Rz's, I have found because of it I have had to add a bit more nitrogen because the sawdust removes it. Sure cuts down on the weeding time and during dry times the plants have ample moisture. note* I do have good drainage, would think twice about any mulch if I didn't, and if I had a ant or termite problem I probably wouldn't use it, don't know because I don't being in Michigan.

Those are great tips about mulching. Most people would think of mulching
the entire bed which is not recommended. Nice thing about wood, either
chips or sawdust, is you can mix it into the soil next time you replant.

Just came in from some serious iris house cleaning to sit inside with the
a/c and thought I would post some pics of why I go against the advice
of everyone in caring for iris.

This IS NOT RECOMMENDED for the faint of heart.

not a pretty sight.

more stem rot.

Why I cut.

Before cut.

clump before cleaning.

clump after cleaning--not the same one.

cleaned plot.

momcat had a question concerning spacing. This is my favorite way,
good for about 3 years. These are 'batik', a border I believe, in a
4' x 4' raised bed. Planted last year with one plant blooming this
year.

The iris stems should be cut after bloom (unless they have a seedpod) as they will rot & lead that down into the clump. SDB stems, being shorter usually just dry up. Triming leaves can be done carefully. I liked the pictures showing a cleaned up bed. One SDB was lined out for increase & that was the one which had the most damage do to all our rain. If your are gardening with other plants instead of just on iris bed make sure that they don't shade the rhizomes. The comments agout keeping the mulch away from the rhizomes are quiet correct--after all they are food bearing stems. That is why they shouldn't be buried "bulbs" and the roots used for anchors.

Thank you OGR for the pictures. That helps me to picture the spacing I need.

I didn't know about cutting the stems back after blooming, either. Thank you for the information.

Deb

One author recommends grasping the stalk near the bottom and pushing
down forcefully??? and snapping the stalk at the old rhizome since that
rhizome is spent and will not bloom again. The stubs which were left
from my trimming today and yesterday snapped right off, some toward
the clump and some away.

All of the green stalks were dripping with liquid when I broke them so
irisma is giving us the straight info.

I've tried the "snapping" method sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, and doing so I've sometimes broken off smaller new Rz's in the process, I now use a small "jack knife" and carefully cut off the bloomstalk at the base of the Rz making sure it remains uncovered to dry. I don't cut back the leaves unless the plant has a bad case of "leaf spot" then those will be removed along with any dead or dying leaves, don't the plants need the good leaves to "feed" the Rz along with the roots? I'm still learning am I wrong?

Right.