Puny rhizomes

Compared to some beautiful fat healthy bearded iris rhizomes I received in trade and the ones I've been digging up in my yard to divide,my rhizomes are pitifully puny. When I plant new rhizomes or divide exsisting ones, I ammend the area with my homemade compost. I think I read somewhere,irises benefit from a little extra phosphate but should I be adding anything this late in the season that might cause them to start growing new tender foliage that will get nipped by my first hard frost.Is there something I should be doing before their bloom cycle starts in the spring? Bulb booster,phosphates,bone or bloodmeal?

It is late to do anything. Try in the spring. We don't get really large rhizomes here either, some areas just don't. If they flower & grow well-not to worry.

some varieties make smaller rhizomes, others are larger. lots of water and fertilizer can increase rhizome size (as can some other additive). as long as it's a healthy rhizome and showing what i call 'baby growth' near on the bottom where the fan comes out (most likely just buds this time of year), it's a blooming size.

Are your existing iris blooming? If so, I'd say you're fine. The west coast iris are huge compared to mine, but after a year or so, they are small and dense and able to survive our summers.

I had blooms this year but not out of all of them.What blooms I got were nice and big. Both trades or purchased,all the rhizomes were big,fat and healthy...they just don't stay that way. No signs of disease or borers. Maybe they just can't get big in my hot and humid zone. I'll try scratching in some fertilizers next year,

I always get a bit of a giggle out of this obsession many irisarians have with rhizome size. I mean does anybody really shell out money just to have huge rhizomes growing underground in their gardens, or are they wanting gorgeous blooms?

In my garden, rzs are itsy bitsy eensy teensy little raisins, but they bloom just as well or better than the huge honkers from the West Coast. In fact, those honkers often need a year or two to shrink down and toughen up here before they'll bloom at all. Small rzs don't crowd each other as quickly and can be planted in smaller spaces, and the blooms still grace my garden each spring.

I'll admit that I can be an easily wooed by a huge rz as anyone else, but the bottom line is still bloom, not rz size.

Laurie

Totally agree with Laurie......

lol this is the first year ive ordered any . or traded . i always thought my rz were fine till i started getting those huge ones lol . i guess mine are fine they bloom ... i did feel a bit inadequate though at first glance

When we get the large ones, I usaully put them out on a newspaper for a couple of weeks to help curing, keeping an eye on the leaves so if they get too dry, they can be removed or the plant put in the ground. We have had a great deal of rain lately so checked on a couple of the CA ones for rot. they seem to be all right.

so size really doesn't matter as long as they get the job done ....LOL

No, size does not matter, as a matter of fact I have one that is probably 1/2 inch big and would you believe it has 4 new fans, those are usually the ones that grow to be potatoes for me. Fertilize 6 weeks before blooms season, and then again after bloom, rebloomers may require more.

Thanks

First pic was a nubbin no larger than 3/4" x 1 1/2" with no leaves or roots--just
a touch of green on the upper end. Normally, I would discard it but I was planting
in threes in order to have a reasonable chance of one surviving.

This was a large rz about 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" with good leaves and a mass of good
healthy roots. Planted slightly before the smaller one above. In this case, size
would have only meant the difference between $.50 and probably $5.00.

The next 2 iris pictures astounded me. This one is Belvi Queen, I planted it last season. It almost died on me, I ended up with just a fragment of iris with a tiny fan. And this is what it is today and almost ready to rebloom,

Here is a close-up of how much that tiny rhizome grew to be with 3 increases behind the main fans.

I've got a bunch of nubbins after I got down replanting,I'm going to trade of in a garden swap next Sat.

Well, I still have a few irises to trade that I have multiples of if anyone is interested. No garden swaps here!!
Deb

What cultivars are they?

Irises that I have 1-2 extras of from trades are (a few I purchased) :

Angel Heart
Beverly Sills
Cool Confidence
Gnu
I Do
Innocent Star
Isn't This Something
Jurassic Park
Lunar Fire
Silverado
Thornbird
Vanity
Wild Wings

I cannot attest to the real identity of the following as they were purchased from a questionable seller. They may or may not be correct:

Cinnamon Girl
Color Glory

I always thought my rhizomes always looked small. I really threw the fertilizer and bug killer at them this past spring and they look MUCH better!!!!! Too...I don't think I realized how big they were to begin with...they needed divided really bad!!
Deb

You did not really throw the fertilizer on them did you?

MY old bed? Yes I really did and they really grew this year!!! Didn't burn them or anything!!! I am not advising anyone to do this...but I did!! Spread it by the handful. I did water it to remove from the tops of the rhizomes and dissolve some into the soil. We have clay soil over shale here so we are always having to enrich it for just about everything we grow.
Deb

Deb,
what kind of fertilzer did you use?

Peggy

Will have to look when I get back home. I think it was some type of Miracle Grow!! LOL!!! I just got tired of them not doing so well. I also realized that they REALLY need divided...so am doing that as soon as I get back home. Started before I left. Visiting my daughter, her hubby, and my grandbaby (1yo) in MD.
Deb

Bigger is not better. Many of the huge rhizomes sent to me out of Oregon & California sit & shrink for a year as they get shocked into iowa's climate. Many of the bigger ones just rot. I'll take small rhizomes that adjust better ANY day.

I only feed my iris twice a year and let God do all the watering.My smaller rhizomes bloom just fine, thank you.

Why,thank you very much,Ms.Wanda,those are just beautiful.*S*

Peggy

With the extreme wet conditions we had in Iowa, the iris bloomed heavily & then many roots just rotted away! I had to go thru every single clump of the 325 cultivars, thinning & removing dead/rotting roots. It was an awful job, but my iris are now ready to face a tough winter.

I'm surprised that I haven't had rot ,what with all the rain we had in early spring and all the storms we had ...Gustav dump a lot of rain on us then that other one right after Gustav. August was unbelievabley wet and cool for my area this year.

Sorry about your irises. Hope they recover and bloom great for you next year.

Peggy

Bearded iris are tough. I've been growing them for over 55 years --I started invitro.... :)

Wanda,
LOL

Wanda, I noticed you said you fertilized your iris twice a year. What times of the year & with what fertilizer?
Thanks,
Becky

Hooray! Just got all the beardless foliage cut back while we have a warm spell. I hate to do it when it is chilly.

Good job IrisMA. I usually leave mine until spring, but it looks so much nicer cut back this time of year.

We only have 1 siberian bed & a few scattered ones & species beardless in another space. but it is hard to do them, I don't lean over well. Too much to do in the spring to deal with matted siberians. We did move 'Holden's Child' to more sun this summer & it looks healthy.

I wait until spring, hold the leaves up, and use a battery operated hedge trimmer. Same with my ornamental grasses, and it doesn't take long. There is so much to do in spring though.

I love Holdens Child. Glad it's doing well for you.

I hold up leaves & use the japanese rice knife--one swish--scary tool. Pirl & I had a correspondence about finding one. found the company but they no longer have the tool. Is it a big hedge trimmer? I don't know if i could hold on to one.

No, it's pretty small, and quite light weight. I can use it all day with no problem.

So the Japanese rice knife isn't sold anymore?

Evidently not. Maybe they were afraid of lawsuites since it could give a very deep cut on people as well.What brand is the hedge trimmer?

I have no idea if this is the type of Japanese Rice Knife you use, but thought I should provide this link. I haven't sold on ebay for quite some time, and do not intend to, but I do buy occasionally.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rice-Knife-with-Nylon-Sheath_W0QQitemZ290132048365QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Dan