Iris class

The 'inside' of an iris flower has the anthers (where pollen resides) & the style arms. At the front edge of the styles is the stematic lip, where pollen is place to make seeds. The slip should be sticky to catch the pollen. If not, flower is too old. I prefer some long roots as anchors. One time I had to lean the new plant up against the marker, to keep it upright & avoid burying the rhizome.

Someone explain the stalk system--height, thickness, branching, side buds etc.
I will try to add some pics tomorrow. I have a little bit of just about everything.

Finally came back to this. Had to post these pics of a large stalk from a noid orange.
A full inch in diameter and 36 inches tall.

The rhizome. Note the dead roots. They probably died when the stalk was produced or
by the time the buds bloomed. You can see why a bloomed rz cannot rebloom next year.
It had a living rz bud and a leafy rz which would have taken it's place.

Overall view.

There have been a lot of reports of rotting rhizomes and stalks on other threads. This thread
would be a good place to consolidate them and see if there is a common cause.

One reason for rot is dampness held in the soil. Beardless like it wet, but bearded do not.when the large rhizomes of bearded arrive we put them on newspaper & let them dry a bit. They can take it and any dampness which came along with ehem disappears. Beardless irises are wrapped so they stay damp & should not be allowed to dry out.

When rot in bearded is found early, cut that portion off with a sharp knife, dip in bleach 1/10 mixed with water, then rinse & allow to dry. Inspect before replanting.

The old roots really do help anchor the rhizome when planting. I, too, have had to use plant markers to keep newly planted, rootless, rhizomes in place.

Thank you for bumping up this thread. I am really interested in learning more technical details about growing irises. I was painting one of my irises today; Superstition, (in a composition of coral peonies and prince of orange poppies). I love to do studies of the plants I grow.
I don't know very much about the inside parts of an iris yet; I do take them apart and draw each part. The rhizome I am going to study next as I am digging them up bit by bit. One question I have: Is the bloom stalk always at the center of the growing edge of the rhizome? I finally understand which side of the rhizome needs to be pointed outward so that the closer clumps don't all grow together. (Which I didn't understand when I dug and replanted my irises a couple years ago. I had rhizomes growing on top of each other every which way, like a crowd in a building where someone cried "fire!" )
I want to know more!

When a bloomstalk is at the center, it is usually stronger & not as apt to fall over. When they are at the ends, there can be such trouble ahead. That is discussing tall beardeds, less problem on the smaller ones & more than one bloomstalk can be on a rhizome.

So what is the usual progression of a rhizome? It blooms, and then makes more baby rhizomes for next year? And each rhizome has a fan with a bloomstalk that will bloom the next year? Or does it take two years to bloom? Do all fans eventually get bloomstalks, or are some fans just foliage? Gee, I would like to find a good reference book that talks about these things in an understandable way. Any recommendations?

The Gardeners Iris Book by Bill Shears is a good one for general gardeners who have to plan their space.