I have the same UNsuccess with it. :-((

The Iris reticulata at our place live in fairly large pots - about 14" across and about 10" deep. (We have a tendency to make bulb kebabs with the garden fork...)

The mix is free-draining and has pumice included. The bulbs are planted around four inches deep, and they were planted at the 'right time' of the year.

After flowering they are fed with tomato fertiliser, or slow release. Over summer they receive rain water and the occasional splosh from a passing hose. They don't actually 'bake', as such. And they are rarely disturbed. I probably won't decant them until they are more crowded - perhaps next year. They've been in those pots for at least three years.

Huey, the Weather God, has sent a couple of mild summers our way and the retics have responded with plenty of flowers - pale and dark blue, and the purply-red ones. The leaves come up between four and six inches high before they complete their cycle.

This year I bought some end of season bulbs and planted them close to the surface and in a shallow bowl, about six inches in depth. They have come up and several have flowered. The leaves came first and are about 12" high.

I bought a further bunch and have potted them on but they have yet to appear although a nosey finger says that roots have begun and a few tentative shoots have emerged. It has been an exceptionally wet winter. This last lot were bought in July (your January equivalent). I'm interested to see how they'll respond in subsequent years.

Plant deep in well drained soil. I have had good success with it in a dry location under a tulip tree(Lirodendron). Has been there for about 6 years now, and blooms better each year though slower to multiply. I have horrible luck and always lose I. danfordii though.

George

Iris reticulata Pixie and Harmony have both returned well for me. Others I have tried have not. I have them at the top of the yard in the driest spot I could find planted in loose imported soil. I normally garden in heavy wet clay soil on a downward slope to the "lays in water" garden.

Thanks to all for your advice. I'll try planting them deeply and make sure they get good drainage.

Of the 'late, late show' - only one survivor. The others, when broken open, were floury and the flower buds had become either a dark staining or a blob of coloured jelly. They also showed blue-green mould on the tunics.

I suspect that if I had kept the mix barely moist then I may have got a better result.

Given the lateness of the attempt, one out of five wasn't too bad.