I started the summer off with an iris and thru the summer it has grown quite a bit as one can see from the comparison pic I'm posting. My question is this: do I break it apart and repot now or cut it back and repot come spring? There was one when I purchased it. There are five in the pot now.
I have the same iris and I just love the abundant sunny yellow blooms. It grows really quickly as you have found out. I personally would wait until spring simply because it would be easier to divide or repot without all of the foilage getting in the way. These also do very well in your regular garden if you want to divide and plant them other places.
Thanks for the tip. I didn't know they would survive outside the pond. If they make it thru the winter (this is my first try at it) I'll certainly be using them in other areas.
Oh My! I tossed mine last spring after flowering. I had them in a bog garden and they were way too happy. They overran the whole garden from just one pot in about three years time. That plus the fact that you get two weeks of bloom and 20 weeks of strappy, floppy plain foliage made it one of my least favorite. I replaced it with Siberian iris 'Pink Haze'.
http://www.homesteadfarms.com/siberian_iris.htm
That 'Pink Haze' is one pretty flower. I'll try it next spring. Thanks for the link.
Hello Snapple45,
I contacted homesteadfarms in regard to 'Pink haze' and they didn't think it would be conducive to water planting.
Have you potted any and placed in the water or just planted in soil outside the pond?
Siberian iris "pink haze" are really intended to be land plants for the long term.
The yellow iris you have Azzam is a louisiana iris and they can be had in numerous colors too.
I like to divide those in the fall but I may not get around to it this year. It gets really cold in WI... I'm not sure what you need to do to over winter them. I'm sure they need to be place somewhere where they wont freeze solid. !
Charlotte
You are all correct about 'Pink Haze'. I have it in the bog garden. The yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus) had also been in the bog garden. It's equally happy as a wet terrestrial or water plant. 'Pink Haze' is not as adaptable.
Thank you both. You've saved me some money and labor and perhaps dissapointment. I want color in the water, perhaps some lotus?
Azzam: Are you aware of the plants available in Co-op? I bought some water plants in the co-op's second water garden sale (this is here on Davesgarden) and not only were they big, healthy and generous in size but they were also very inexpensive and they bloomed beautifully all summer long! Also, I don't live that far from you and we can plant swap next year (or even now if you wanted). There are others here at Daves from our area that would swap as well.
Azzam: I just looked closely at your pictures of your iris. It looks like it is pretty tight in that pot with the way it is spaying outwards at the edges. How wide is your pot? Do you want more of that in your pond along the edge or do you want something else? How deep is your plant shelf?
What if you made a version of a "growing bag" and installed into the ground at the pond edge with landscape pins and had it drape into the pond with your cat litter and water plants. This way you wouldn't have to worry about plant depths or fish getting into the plant. It would help to blend in the pond edge and the landscape rock together. I don't know if this is an original idea or not but I thought it would help a friends pond overcome that first season of newness and the pond edge blending in. It worked out well for my friend-I should see if she took any pictures. I used landscape fabric and sewed the bags custom for my friend. They weren't the prettiest, if you know what I mean, but they worked well and quickly filled in and her koi couldn't destroy them and make a mess of the pond. She didn't put in much of a pond edge during construction and the pond was too deep for the marginals I gave to her.
I grow the purple elephant ears in my pond , no soil, just pebbles....
Merry Mary,
I have elephant ears that I dug and divided and have in pots in the sunroom. Right now they're sitting in the dry water feature that we will get bubbling in the next week or two. Can they live in the water? The pots look so nice there, in the indoor pond, that I was thinking of leaving them there as an experiment. I don't remember the variety, but they are a dark red. I have five pups that I separated when I dug them out.
I have the same kind of EE. They do very well in the water but do not seem to form bulbs when grown that way.
Ana-What a cute room for over wintering plants-I'm envious! I really want a greenhouse. . . I have to drag my plants all over my house to spread them out otherwise we get overwhelmed by the plants. My master bath is choke full of plants and the cats are playing in the plants and pulling out the dry spikier leaves and making a mess everywhere. Winter is too long at my house. . .
What is that plant with the big leaf in the upper left had corner of the pic?
I have most of mine growing in plain water, propped up with pebbles, but no soil of any type. Most colocasia elephant ears can grow this way, but the alocasia elephant ears usually can't take that much water. Here they grow in the water ditches in the wild.
