Iris Bloom Out

I had never really heard of this until someone here mentioned it last week. Anyway, I went out to my iris gardens/flowerbeds and discovered that I have a great many irises that bloomed out also. Meaning, that nearly every iris plant within each clump bloomed.

I went through several beds and cut away the bloom stalks and there wasn't a whole lot left of some clumps.

Now I have alot of questions and need lots of help.
Let me start out by saying a couple of years ago I lost nearly all my irises 95% of them due to flooding and under water for several months. I swore (forgive me lord) that I was never going to replant them again. As all iris lovers know NEVER is a very long time. Well one thing lead to another and a couple of very nice people sent me some of their NOID irises. Then of course I started getting flyers and catalogs from vendors that I had ordered from before. So I set out to rebuild my iris beds, and to add to my collection of irises that I already loved and missed.

Of course the next year, we had a drought for a long time but my irises did fine with a lot of love and attention and some fertilizer. They bloomed beatifully last year and multiplied really well. Then this year I did not fertilize them earlier in the year as I didn't want to cause soft rot when they start growing so fast and all.Besides that we've had soooooo much rain again this year and the beds can not dry out once again. I know they have stayed wet now for at least a month and a half. They have not fully dried out at all this summer and I know irises don't like their feet wet. I have no control over mother nature so this is something that I can't fix. Even with the raised beds they are still wet..

Now I have this bloom out or whatever you want to call it.

Do any of you know what causes it. Is it something bad, and what can I do to help my lovelyirises? Please someone give me some good information that I can use quickly.

Happy Gardening, Marian

Oh, dear, maybe I have some of those too.
I will be waiting anxiously for an answer.
Well after they bloom, don't you just cut the stalk off, and it will grow a new root, that will bloom next year. And the one that bloomed this year dies? I thought?

Yes that is kind of true, but if they don't produce any babies it is my understanding that they just DIE???
Need to read and learn more about this. Needless to say I'm not real happy about this.
Happy Gardening, Marian

Cover the rhizome with a little dirt about 1/2" and let it sit...it still might produce more rhizomes.

If is on of my beloved ones, I bury and let it do its own thing.

You might be surprised.

D

does it help to cut off the stalk so that it doesn't sap the root?

I'm sorry, yes snap the stalk after it has finished blooming. You should remove all stalks after blooming unless you have made crosses on them

I really have saved iris from bloom out by doing this.

D

I had "Incantation" bloom out on me in 07, I replanted a mother rz that was the largest and it did get three increases on it which I divided and replanted last year sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, last year I lost "Supreme Sultan" to bloom out but I had got a couple more in a trade.
Pic of "Incantation"

Wow! That is really pretty.

Thanks D, I always cut the stalks back so the plant can spend it's energy making babies for me. (grin) But I'm talking about probably 75% of my irises look like they have bloom out are whatever you call it.

If it will save them I'll gladly go bury everyone of them with a little soil. Actually, I was thinking about digging EVERYONE of them up. The last time the weather was like this for a couple of months I lost most of my irises to rotting in the ground and turning to that slimmy stinking to high heaven mush. I figured if the weather stays wet that I can at least save a few of my beloved irises by storing them in the shed until the rain is gone and the ground can dry out real well. I figured it would be a ton of work, but that we could till in a bunch of amendments to the soil and remove the grass paths that I left to walk between the beds. I don't know what I was thinking when I left the grass. Now it just grows over into the beds and I have alot of extra work to mow between the beds and hoe it out of the beds. I must be a gluton for punishment. One of these days I'm going to learn an easier way to do everything in my iris and daylily beds. This doing everything the hard way is the pits. I'm too old for all the hoeing and weeding, I'm also thinking that I may do away with all the name tags in the garden. Those little cemeterary markers make it even harder to clean out the beds.

Let me know so of ya'll thoughts regarding all of this.
Thanks in advance and Happy Gardening, Marian

Marian can you be as wet as the PNW we have had more rain since 10-1-08 than ever we are over 10" and not finished for the year

D

Dee, we had 8 inches of rain one day last week in less than 4 hours. Then the next day we had I think 3 or 4 more inches. Let's just say everything around here is water logged and there's not alot of places for the water to run off to. Our pond has been running over like Niagra Falls for so long I seriously doubt that we have any catfish or bass left. Thankfully it hasn't washed the dam out like it did one of our neighbors. (Knock on Wood)

We've had high water over so many of our little roads down here that you have to go different routes to get to where ever your wanting to go. Lake Winnsboro was out of the banks and had two major roads around here completely shut down. Today is the first day in forever that we have not had any rain. Thank Goodness! Rain is in the forecast again for tomorrow.

We are having a Dave's Garden Round Up in Jacksonville, Texas (a couple of hourse from my house) this Saturday.
I'm just praying that we have great weather and mother nature is kind to us.

Just about everyone I've talked to says they have been having tons of rain. I wish we could send some it to those who need it.

Happy Gardening, Marian

That is sad! I think at this point I would dig and let dry...alot of work but I know you do not want to loose your iris.

I know I wish we could send our rain off as well.

D

I have had a few of my irises rot this year from all of the rain we have had and it still raining. More and more like a rainforest with the rain, heat and humidity. Some were just the mother rhizome with a couple of babies that were ok. I decided I should remove the mother rhizome and just replant the babies. Did I do right? never had this happen before! Just lost maybe a dozen to the -5 degrees we got down to this past winter, then this!

You did correctly. With the weather and rain and wetness many have had this year, there is more rot...said to say but true

D

I have never heard of "bloom out", but I have noticed that often I will have a year when the irises all bloom like crazy, and then the next year they are dying. I assumed it was do to overcrowding and iris borer. Maybe you shouldn't fertilize iris?
I lost all of my baby rhizomes to rot this spring, so I am very interested in the discussion about drainage. I am trying out planting each plant on a mound, the top of which is higher than any of the surrounding areas. Maybe even setting the rhizome on top of a gritty cactus like mix...The roots go way down into the mound, and I don't think the moisture hurts them.

Rhizomes are food storage stems, not bulbs so should not be planted too deep.

I don't have a lot of bloom out here in Kentucky, but when I notice that happening, I dig it up immediately and plant it in a pot. I use root builder (Root Blast) when I plant it, and hold it in the pot until it puts up increase. I still lose one occasionally, but I have had great success this way. (I do this with any that looks affected by rot as well). I know with a lot of irises this will be a lot of work, but maybe you could just do this with your absolute favorite ones and pray the rest survive. Good luck!

Do you remove the stalk right after it is done blooming? Also, is it OK to cut the stalk or should it only be snapped off?

Better to snap but some just will NOT snap so cut them right off at the rhizome

D

I googled iris bloomout because I had never heard of it. There were not many references at all, but here is what John Bruce, Ohio has to say:

"A rhizome produces only one bloomstalk. If every single fan
produces a bloom, and does not produce any more fans, it is
said to bloom out. If a clump produces new fans, but just fails
to bloom, tht is not bloomout. A fan that sends up a bloomstalk
does one of two things--it either dies, or produces new rhizomes
(fans) for the following years' bloom. The trick with rhizomes that
bloomout is suspected in is figuring out if they are just slow in
growing new rhizomes, or slow to go ahead and die :).

The old "woody" rhizomes can be put in sand and kept moist, and
often they will send up new growth. This is a good way to make
more plants quickly, and since it was going to be thrown away anyway,
is well worth the time and effort.