Weegy, I'm not posting to make a request (all planted up here until i make more space!) but rather to say THANK YOU. You shared some of your beauties with me a couple of years ago, and they're doing wonderfully well! It's indeed special to have Weegy irises in my garden! :-)
irises for postage
Awwwww, thanks critter! I'm so glad they're doing well, you've shared herbs and seeds with me and I so appreciate that. Let me know when you want more irises!
I hope your irises bloom like crazy for years to come!
Thanks to you and others, and especially to the annual iris society rhizome sale here, the whole back section of my perennial bed is planted in irises and columbines (great combo)! It takes them a couple of years to really settle in and start blooming well, but the show just gets better every year. I've got some no-name purple and blue ones (I think yours were the blue) along the back edge of the iris bed, and they have been really doing well, although I think their blooms might be limited due to the partial shade there... I may limb up the neighboring trees. :-)
Thanks again! And to everybody getting irises... if you don't get blooms the first spring, don't be discouraged. Sometimes irises just take their time settling in. If you're new to irises, there's some introductory info on planting and some links that might be helpful in this DG article I wrote last year, http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/123/.
(See what you helped to start in my garden?)
Great article critter. Thanks again...and I am glad to have helped!
(You got me into herb gardening!)
Critter, that was just in time!!! Right after I rec'd mine, ( grin - I was the first one to get some!! ) I read something about waiting till spring to plant because of freezing, heaving, etc., but there was your article.
Should I soak the rhizones a bit before I plant them? that's sticking in the back of my mind for some reason.
I wouldn't soak them unless they're looking really withered (like old potatoes that have started to get almost bendy)... Watering them in well when they're planted (and then not watering again but letting the rain take care of it) seems to be sufficient. Too much water can lead to rot, but iris rhizomes can take a lot of drying out.
I've got a few in pots right now (because their garden area wasn't ready when I was planting out), and I may try overwintering them in a sheltered spot (with a bit of mulch piled around their pots but not over the rhizomes).
Don't soak them. They don't like wet; what looks like a bulb is a food storage stem. they can be watered in after planting but best watered from the ground up, not watered from overhead.
Evidently critterologist & I posted at the same time.
I wanted to add that if you do decide to soak them, don't do it for more than a couple of hours. (And really, I'd skip it. The only rhizomes I ever soaked were some co-op ones that had clearly been out of the ground for many weeks.)
You might want to do the bleach dip, however. I mean no disrespect to Weegy's garden in suggesting this -- I bleach all new rhizomes as a matter of course... it's easy to do, and I figure it pretty much eliminates most of the possible hitchhikers. I'd bleach all of my incoming plants, probably, but most of them are not as tough as iris rhizomes and couldn't handle it, LOL.
Iris, that's a good point about watering... obviously rain is indiscriminate about how it falls, but if I'm watering in new irises with the hose, I try to go around the rhizome rather than right on top of it. That way, you don't end up with little puddles of water on the surface of the rhizome.
We have soaker hoses in the beds, not pretty but the iris plants are in their own beds, not mixed with other flowers. In a 'normal' garden you can lay the hose on the groung for a few minutes & then move it.
I have soakers in my other beds, but the irises are on their own... they generally seem to get enough water from the rain. If we have another really dry year, I'll run soakers for them too.
We have very sharp drainage--mainly use the hoses when it is very dry & when newly germinated seedlings are set out.
Ah. I've got amended clay here, so that's the difference. I sure wouldn't want to water the irises on the same program as the rest of the garden... it would be too much.
okie. no soaking for me =) thanks for all the good info.
In GA, they loved the clay. I remember my mom planting them in groups of 3, bulbs always facing each other, but not touching, in the center, planting them about 1/2 way in the dirt. She'd always brush the dirt off so you could see most of the rhizone.
i wish i had asked more questions. sheeese....does that feeling ever go away? one thing for sure, she'd tell me I'd better get them planted.
blessings,
Phyl
LOL, Phyl...enjoy!