Japanese irises - why don't you grow them PART 2

You might be able to distinguish the bad advice from good. After a year of experimenting you can let us know!

I was at a place this past fall on a whim. I fell in love. They had huge stands of JIs and SIBs. Not to mention their DLs and peonies. As I gazed at their huge stand of variegata they promptly told me to make sure I divide every threee years or so.
So , all I can tell everyone, remain my friend, I will be dividing and giving away in two years ^_^

I'm first in line.

I want to be second....LOL.

I've had clumps for 16 years without dividing. The clump won't die, it will just get to the point where you don't get as many flowers. Under the BEST of growing conditions, Jis need to be divided about every 3-4 years, or flowering will decrease. Under average garden conditions they will go a couple more years without dividing.

When the clumps start to flower less, or you see a dead area in the center of the clump it's time to divide.

But don't divide too early. If you do you will miss out on a lot of blooms. If you get really good blooms one year, the next year they won't be much less. And then maybe the year after, divide.

rb6033, beleive me they are not going anywhere. I still have the first one I ever had, actually the first three. 16 years ago.

Wow, I'm gaining friends quickly..^_^

venu will be the most popular girl on the forum, with lots of new friends.

Remember when you divide to add some fresh soil to the remaining clump, or more the remaining clump to a new location..

Do Japanese & Siberian Irises have the same water & light requirements?

This message was edited Jan 19, 2009 6:49 PM

Polly knows best so you can count on her to answer your question.

Thank you, Pirl.

Yes, is the short answer.

The long answer is sibs are more tolerent of alkaline soil, and less water. The first year the JIs need water to get established. Sibs do too, but not as much. Where you would give JIs a shovelful of peat when planting, the sibs don't need it. Once you've had both in place for a year, I would just treat them the same. They both grow the same as established daylilies, neither are any harder to grow than daylilies.

I recall Bob Bauer of Ensata being quoted as saying, to put your JIs next to a 75.00 daylily, care for it the same and it will do fine.

Light requirements for all are the same. I would say stormyla, full sun to very part shade for your area.

Good advice Mittsy! A big shovelful of some well rotted manure, or compost mixed in with the old soil will do really well for the divisions. It doesn't hurt to put a little fertilizer in the bottom of the hole and cover it with dirt before planting the JIs or sibs, so they can grow their roots down to it. Don't put fresh fertilizer right by the roots of new divisions or it could burn them.

This message was edited Jan 19, 2009 6:54 PM

Thank you, Polly. That's very helpful for determining which type to put in which bed.

You're welcome. But truly, as long as you can put a shovelful of peat, and water them for the first year the JIs go well in any garden bed. I even grow them with my historic and median bearded irises, which can take more water. I have some areas where the medians front the JIs. All do well.

Thank you, Polly. Each year I add more Iris and also try to explore new types. Last year I added more Siberians after a few that I planted the year before bloomed. I'm so glad you started this thread because it's really helped open my eyes to the possbilties!

Stormyla, you might want to look into some of the species and species crosses then for your next foray into the iris world. Many of them, like the pseudatas, versicolors, virginicas and robustas are super easy to grow in any garden bed, and it"s fun to see the different forms and different effect the leaves give.

One I love, Cascade Mist, a versicolor has cascading leaves. And then there's Paltec, the only known cross between a bearded and a beardless iris. Paltec is grown just like a bearded.

Here's Patec, courtesy of Iris City Gardens.

http://www.iriscitygardens.com/images/other/paltec.jpg

Most of the species and crosses are reasonably priced also.

Here's Cascade Mist to show the leaves. The flowers just seem to snake their way out of the leaves.




This message was edited Jan 19, 2009 11:43 PM

Thank you, Polly.

Stormyla

Here are some different irises for you
this is
Hermodactylus tuberosa a bulb that terrifies me every year, just when I would go to dig it the thing is growing. Right now in 9oF weather it is 12" tall. It is among the first to bloom for me

This is a very typical versicolor but it does come in variations

This is the white form

Thank you, Avmoran. They are lovely.

DH has a seedling he crossed between I.verna & bearded SDB. It has a beard so there is some question of which traits it received--still being studies after several years.

Pirl do you know anything about growing these from seed?

Maureen

zip, zilch, nada.

Maureen I started some I.ensata years ago from seed. They were pretty easy to germinate, I don't recall doing anything special- just typical seed starting like most annuals. I was really seed stupid back then and ended up losing the plants to neglect later, but I know if I succeeded getting them started when I was much less serious about it, you won't have any trouble.

Do any of you grow Iris tectorum (Japanese Roof Iris)? I've been intrigued by those for years and have some seed to start now. I'm not finding any info on starting them, and am not getting any hits on the threads I've started in this forum or the seed germination forum. Any recommendations where to look?

Neal,

Iris tectorum is very easy to grow from seed. It really doesn't need stratification, but I've found it does better germinating with it. I put the seeds in damp (not wet) peat moss for about 6 weeks in the fridge. Then plant in a seed bed, and lightly cover with fine compost. I would imagine it would wintersow easily also.

I have found iris tectorum will get virus, so watch out for that. It's pretty common. Frequent transplanting will help to avoid that.

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/7679/seeds.html

When I was first starting to try seeds I went to this site and have used this method since except that since it freezes here I put the pots in the ground to get more even temperature gradient for the seeds.

:)
Anita

Polly and Anita, thanks so much, just the info I needed.

You're welcome Neal.

Did you get your seeds from SIGNA? If not, check into some of the neat seeds they have. They have the new seed list up from 2008, and I see our own IrisMA contributed some.

Jumping in here to say I live with alkaline soil and water my JIs with a bit of vinegar added to my manure/alfalfa tea. Works well with JIs, not so well with blueberries. In fact, have given up on blueberries - and rhodos.

Have been more or less off-line for awhile. Glad to be back.
inanda

Hi inanda! Good to see ya back :-)

Polly, I received these I.tectorum seed in a seed swap. I'll check out SIGNA.

Get out your checkbook. Lots of nice seeds this time, at only 1.00 per packet. But you have to join SIGNA, which is a must anyway, if you're into species iris.

Does anyone use Miracid to help the acid soil plants?

Yes. I do and I think Polly does.

Yes, in fact it's the only thing I use on my sandy neutral soil (except I might add some peat when planting). JIs are heavy feeders, and it doesn't hurt to hit them every two weeks with fertilizer (but you don't have to), I do Miracid and then Miracle Gro, alternating every two weeks. I do it throughout the growing season to get the optimal root growth for new divisions.

Now I plan to use it even later in the fall, since I've determined late summer is a period of strong root growth, and now that I've read they set theri buds in the fall.

I was recommended to soak my JI and SI seeds for 2 weeks, changing the water every day (to get rid of the germination inhibitors), followed by about 8 weeks of cold, then a couple warm bath treatments. I have heard of some people just putting them in a pantyhose in the toilet tank. Sounds easier, but didn't attract me. I'm also using a bit of H2O2 in the water.

"I have heard of some people just putting them in a pantyhose in the toilet tank. Sounds easier, but didn't attract me."....LOL! Guess that would be effective, but I'd never heard of that one- cracked me up! I already get "the eye" for various things the household finds in the fridg and jars of fermenting tomato slurry (for the seeds), so they probably wouldn't think too much about pantie hose hanging out of the toilet tank. Like you, I think I'll pass that tip up, LOL.

if it helps at all, they are supposed to be put in the tank, not the bowl? :-)

LOL! I thought so, and that's a good thing. The lengths we gardeners will go to...

When I tried that I got one seedling out of about 200 seeds
I'll stick with pots in the ground.
:)
A

Actually , I did start a number of JLs b y the toilet tank method with pretty good results. Perhaps 20 or so. I got the seeds from Specialty perennials. They all turned out to be the basic purple. I got good growth in the garden and nice blooms. I probably am going to compost them after they bloom this year. I had hoped to get some pink and other colors.

In the mean time I have bought 10 or so from Aitken and Ensata which I planted this past August/September.