Moving the irises after tough summer

 

OK - here's the deal in as few words as possible. My existing bearded iris
bed is overgrown and needs to be moved and divided up. Worse, the location
has become filtered afternoon sun over the last few years. (bed has been
there, with semi-regular division for at  least 10 years.)

I'm thinking of just lifting them all up, dividing and cleaning and moving
them to an existing bed which has good drainage. I'd move all those plants
up to the old iris bed, where most of them will do fine until I finish the
great rearrange of the gardens. (As an aside, I'm thinning my daylily
collection, and otherwise changing the garden up.) New bed is unlikely to
become shady in the next decade.


My other concern, is since this new iris bed will be "front and center", it
will be boring unless I find some good companions that like the same summer
conditions.

So - Make the move now while I have the time or wait until it starts to cool
down and hope I have the time. Watering is not an issue.

Thanks

Cheryl

 


Cheryl Isaak;896654 Wrote:

I have always moved bearded Irises as soon as they have finished
flowering. the
old roots are beginning to die off and the new ones
usually are only 'buds' so
you do not damage them as you dig up the old
rhizomes. I assume you know to
plant only the younger pieces and with
the fan of leaves at the North end so
they do not shade the roots. Also
you may trim the leaves back by about half.




--
Owdboggy

 

On 8/6/10 5:00 AM, Cheryl Isaak wrote:

Monitor what is happening in your local nurseries (real nurseries, not
lumber yards or hardware stores).  When bare-root bearded irises first
appear for sale, wait one week.  Then dig and divide.

If you are moving the iris to a new bed, prepare that bed while waiting
for the time to dig and divide.  If your soil is clay (as is mine), add
a generous amount of gypsum to the new bed when you prepare it.  This
will give the gypsum time to break up the clay before planting the iris
there.

Don't forget to put some bone meal or superphosphate in the bottom of
the planting holes (old and new beds).  Cover lightly with
non-fertilized soil so that disturbed iris roots do not directly touch
the fertilizer.  The phosphorus will promote flowering.

My bearded iris seem to do okay with part-sun.  I would suspect that any
lack of flowering is more likely to do with crowding than with the
amount of sunlight.  I thoroughly divide each iris bed about every third
or fourth year, doing a different bed each year so as spread the effort
from year to year.

See my <http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_divide_iris.html> .

--
David E. Ross
Climate:  California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>

 

On 8/6/10 4:18 PM, in article pL2dnVnJCvqC88HRnZ2dnUVZ_r2dnZ2d@iswest.net,


Hmm- I've had some bad luck using bone meal  - seems to drive the critters
wild and they dig every thing up. Like all 500 daffodil bulbs. I see a bag
of superphosphate in my future.

You're a LOT warmer than I am - while the map tells me I Zone 5a, I garden
as if I'm Zone 4. The winter winds whip in and swirl around a bit and the
cold air settles in. I can measure as much as 6 degrees different from the
top lawn (hill top) to the bottom lawn and vernal pond area.

Thanks again guys

 

Hi Cheryl,

I am familiar with growing irises in NH.  The problem there tends to be soil
too high in organic content and/or clay, hence not draining sufficiently.
Irises do like to be soaked now and then, but they thrive compared to other
plants in locations where the soil is sandy and periodically gets very dry.

    Una