The fungus is Petal Blight If you are getting petal blight, then deadheading is very important. All spent flowers should be destroyed. The best way is to toss them in the trash. Petal blight is a disease that hits some rhododendrons and azaleas that bloom later in the spring. It causes the flower to turn mushy before it naturally wilts. If you look closely it forms unsightly brown spots on the flowers. Petal Blight, Ovulinia azaleae: This fungal disease, caused by Ovulinia azaleae, primarily affects the flowers of azaleas, but mountain laurel and rhododendron flowers can also be infected. Indian and Kurume azaleas are especially susceptible. The disease starts on the flower petals as tiny, irregularly-shaped spots, giving a "freckled" appearance. On colored flowers the spots are white, and on white flowers the spots are brown. The spots quickly enlarge and become soft and watery. Flowers rot and stick to the leaves. Infection is easily spread from flower to flower by wind, rain and insects. The fungus survives the winter in the soil. The most important things that you can do to control this disease in the home landscape are to pick and destroy infected flowers and avoid overhead watering. This fungus survives in the soil, so it is important to replace the ground litter with uncontaminated mulches. Rake and remove flower debris from beneath plants and, if possible, remove old flowers still attached to plants. Apply new mulch around the base of plants to serve as a barrier to new infection. On large azalea plantings, where it is not practical to remove infected flowers, make weekly fungicide applications beginning just before bloom and continue until the last buds open. The best fungicides are a combination of chlorothalonil and benomyl or Mancozeb or Bayleton or triadimefon. During moist seasons, control may be difficult for late blooming varieties. Sanitation practices such as deadheading and removal of diseased material my improve control. In the northwestern US, Ovulinia is present, but similar symptoms can also be caused by Botrytis cinerea which is less damaging to the flowers and easier to control. It is important to remove diseased material from the vicinity of a planting. This means removing dead material that harbors spores of fungal disease and dying material that contains eggs of insects. Dying portions of a plant should be cut off and removed. The ground should be cleaned of dead leaves or flower parts. Pruned parts should be removed. Deadheading flowers involves removing the structure left after blooming before seedpods form. A rhododendron or azalea flower is composed of several florets connected to the stem by a base that is easy to break. When deadheading just grab the flower near this base area and twist the flower sideways and break it off in this spongy area. Try not to break any of the buds that are around the base of the flower.

Usually when I divide sibs it's in the early spring when the leaves are just starting to show. I cut a pie shaped wedge out of the clump and transplant. I put a lot of old manure/compost into the missing wedge and fill the hole. Lot of compost in and around the transplants too. Sibs are heavy feeders especially in the spring. Really no trick to it just feed them and keep them moist until established which is pretty easy in the spring here. Give them a good feeding with a fertilizer of some sort that's a bit on the acid side. Miracle grow for tomatoes or azalea's works great or if your like me with lots of horses some old manure in the early spring. No lime! Sibs really resent it. Sets them right back. Nearly kills them. I even tested this on an old clump that I had a lot of this year. Died right back to the ground and had to regrow. Feed them well early on and then again after bloom and you'll be rewarded this spring. Sibs can be a little fussy after transplant so as long as the plant looks good I doubt you did anything wrong. I'm cool enough and moist enough where I can transplant any iris any time of the year as long as I give it enough time to establish before the cold sets in. I really like to give them a minimum of 8 weeks before the first killer frost. Best if you move the iris you have now. More time before winter the better. Bearded iris like a little lime. Nothing wrong with iris in a mixed bed. I sometimes have a hard time with it because I like the mixed, nearly chaotic cottage garden look but as long as the rhizomes are getting plenty of air and sun they do fine. Just have to keep tabs on them a bit.

I guess I would have to disagree with you all. Bleach is the only thing that has kept my dianthus from their death this year. And it was no a dilute version of bleach. It was a strong version of bleach. Nothing has died from having bleach water pored on it and the dianthus with early symptoms of fungus were dug up and dipped in bleach, then the hole they camer out of was saturated with bleach and re-planted. Not only did the plants survive but they are now growing and doing well. Finnally something has saveed my plants.

totoro, I love your Louisiana Iris! Thats just what I need for my little frog bogs! I have choc mint and lizard tails in the bogs right now for them to 'spawn' on. I could really use some more color/flowers there because the pots themselves are pretty. I'm probably going to take the mint and lizard tails out of 3 of them. I have 4 large water lily pots that they will also use but they prefer the 4 shallower plant bog pots. All you guys have such pretty Iris! I am totally jealous! I have fast draining soil here but I don't know if they would still rot here due to the humidity during our rainy season. Festiva, What a beautiful photo of your kitty. He does look like a jungle cat! I want to call him Bagheera from The Jungle Book! I think I will try some Nigella here too.