No! Your average last frost date (50% chance of 32 degrees) is Mar 1. Even pushing the envelope to use the average last FREEZE (50% chance of 28 degrees) you're still looking at January 31. But don't feel bad, you're lucky both those dates are relatively soon, I have to wait until May. You could start them inside now, and plant out in February with some protection...

Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Wed, Jun 5, 13 at 20:37 You should put some cat food or tuna cans in the yard to measure the real output of your sprinklers. Time how long they run and see how much you get in the cans. Ideally you will apply 1 inch per week in the hottest heat of summer - AFTER THE SOD IS GROWING WELL. I did this in all my 9 zones for 15 mins & multiplying by 4 to a get a 60 mins equivalent. then recently set my Rain Bird controller with these assumptions & let it do its thing. But I am sceptical as it appears the RB algorithm likes to cycle & soak 2-3 times a week in a 10-15 min for each zone. That's is where I notice the discrepancy in philosophy of experienced lawn experts such as yourself. Until then you should water a little more frequently with the objective of getting the water deep in the soil and backing off on the frequency. Short bursts of water on a daily basis is the worst case. It encourages weeds and promotes disease. You should have been watering new sod 2x-3x per day for a short time each - just enough to keep the roots moist while they knit into the underlying soil. Allowing it to go every other day might have been a problem. Reality was the irrigation folks set the sprinklers initially to water deep & almost everyday during the grow-in period. We finally realized this one month in & went to the 'tuna can' inputs & cut back the watering ourselves. That said, the damage may have already been done as we currently see some spots that have yellowing & unevening & divots with no grass growth in our overall lawn. Can you clarify what you mean in red above please? A bit confused here as it appears there is some contradiction with your recommendations ?? With that in mind, adding new sod now should be okay. The sooner the better since your old new sod does not have deep roots yet. Doesn't this counter the conventional wisdom of only planting during early spring & early fall? Do you have a lot of shade? Just wondering why fescue instead of a fescue mix with Kentucky bluegrass or full KBG? Our house is on a new lot with no mature trees of note & is 90% unshaded.

I had read that they can still do OK in the same conditions as bearded iris, they just won't flourish as much..but I guess that isn't exactly true! Speaking of growing irises in shade, a couple years ago I divided and threw out some of this dwarf purple iris that I have, because it had a ton of leaf spot that I couldn't get rid of and it looked terrible. I tossed the worst plants under an evergreen near our house. The last 2 springs I have noticed that those plants have managed to root - with their rhizomes completely out of the ground - under the conifer branches. Their leaf spot has 100% disappeared, and they have bloomed happily each year. Weird! Who knew iris can survive in full shade, in a bunch of pine needles, with their rhizomes completely unburied! Silly plants.

My experience is that Siberian irises are pretty tough and will withstand all kinds of abuse. (I had a garbage bag of some from a friend that sat all summer without much water or attention and didn't get planted until late fall and is doing just fine.) I would think that you might want to mulch them to reduce frost heaving if you can so any new roots starting to form don't get torn out, but otherwise I don't see any real issues.