Beginner Gardening: mystified and daunted by decades-old never-divided iris!, 1 by pollyk

pollyk wrote:
Carrie,

You really have a job on your hands girlfriend, LOL. Now is definitely not the time to do it, though. However the huge chunks you took out and put back in won't be harmed at all.

From your location, and the looks of the iris, they are siberians.

When they get new growth of about 4" in the spring will be a good time to divide. You want to dig up the whole clump, and divide it down into about 3-5 fan divisions. you're going to get a LOT of divisions.

Now here's the real pain. Siberian irises that overgrown will be growing on top of each other. And you're going to want to get the bottom, old, dead rhizomes off. After you do that, take off the small feeder roots. You'll know the difference, you'll see fat white roots, and then hairy ones. The hairy ones won't do any good, and more will regrow anyway.

It's going to take some muscle to pull the old rhizomes off, and divide them into divisions.

Here's what a divisions should look like. This size planted back in the ground in early spring may give you flowers the first year, if not, definitely the second.

If you have any questions in the spring, feel free to contact me at siberianirisgardens@live.com I'm always happy to help.

Polly