Iris falling over?

My sister was just up for the weekend and I was showing her our iris garden that we just expanded and she told me that the iris in her yard fall over before they bloom. Why would this happen. I told her to dig them up and that she probably has some root rot that she will have to cut off but realy I don't know and I am sure some of you will. What info should I pass on.

sometimes mine fall over. Wind, rain softens the soil around them ect. Most iris do not root very deep and then the stalks and blooms can make the plant top heavy. I just go to lowes and buy some plant stakes, I use wire ones.

hhmmm, Mine don't do that. It must be the difference in soil or maybe we are more protected from the wind. Thanks!

you could also have pets, deer? neighbors dog, ect
could be coming in at night and doing them in.
I have a neighbors dog that sometimes kerplooies my flowers :(

How often are they watered? while irises don't need to be watered very often, too dry also can cause the stalks to fall.

Some kinds of iris are more inclined to fall over than others. I have one historic that falls over while my other iris stand upright

Are the fans falling over? Hopefully not, as that's usually a sign of either borers or soft rot. I had both last year on a couple of over-crowded clumps. Had to get out the pitchfork and the Clorox. It wasn't fun!

I had some larger clumps trying to flatten out around the perimeter before they bloomed or
put up serious stalks. I pulled and twisted a couple of them and they appeared to be ok.
All of mine are in line to be dumped due to some serious spotting and, in some cases of
younger ones, leaf soft rot or crown rot. I have decided I will not send ANYTHING out
as giveaways.

I found one leaning over today and it could have been because my Birman has been sleeping in the beds. I tried to move the fans back up and the stalk broke off. :( I am still seeing pill bugs around the bases of some iris.

We had such strong winds in the area of our previous house that I always had taller iris flop over. Victoria Falls was one of the worst offenders, and was also one of my favorites!

I did better with the Border Bearded's and the shorter Tall Beardeds.

Victoria Falls is one of the worst offenders anywhere, pretty as it is. I really don't care to grow TBs over 36" tall. We are both median freaks here.

Now we know how Victoria Falls got her name. :-)

In our garden, i think it was the rain. ground is exceptionally soft and the iris with the huge, fat blooms were trying to pretend they are rain barrels. as soon as their weight reached critical mass, they'd fall over.

well this year we have had enormous amount of rainfall and record winds.
so that is what blew mine over after the ground was saturated.
It doesn't take much to 'over' an iris. I guess it depends what kind of dirt you have. More clay, they might stay in place. Mine are in a more compost kind of loose dirt, and they just come up. Sometimes the stalks break off if the wind is bad, other times they whole plant just falls over.

Some get 40" + with several large blossoms trying to burst
- they can get top heavy.

Shade makes some fall over. I have some that are partially shaded so the stalks lean toward the sun. Then when a whole lot of blooms open, they fall over. The same plants in sun do better.

Edited to add that another reason many of mine fall over is that gophers have eaten the stem at the bottom of the bloom stalk. Sometimes they pull the whole bloomstalk down their hole! Grrr. They seem to prefer bloom stalks to rhizomes and leaves, but will eat those two if there are no blooms stalks. Nasty little creatures.

This message was edited May 29, 2009 12:40 PM