Hi! I'll do the best I can, and I am sure someone will pick up the slack! And welcome to Irises! (By the way, I love Blue J Iris! They always have a great deal.) Most all Bearded Iris love sun. I've seen some do alright with part sun, but they will not usually multiply as fast. 6+ hours a day in full sun do them best. I just put in a new flower bed for a large collection of TB's and used a mix of Humus, top soil, and compost. Mostly compost and top soil though. I think I only added about 2 bags of humus to the 7 bags of the others. All the Iris already in the ground are rooting, and some are showing new growth. To plant them, you need to dig a hole deep enough for the roots to be spread out, but so the top of the rhizomes are just above the level of the ground. Slightly out of the soil. Just make sure to get them in the ground 6 weeks before the usual first frost! Mulching is not a good thing for Rhizomes, at least from what I read, but I've never been one to mulch much either. Since the top of the rhizomes need to bask in the sun, it would make sense that the mulch would choke them out. As for the bone meal, I would add some now, before you plant, and mix it in a bit OR wait until fall to sprinkle about. (This part I am not 100% on, as it will be my first year to add fertilizer. Mine has bone meal in it, and the only real instructions are "do not apply directly to the rhizomes" so I am still learning the fertilizer area. ) As for watering, you want to water deeply, and not too often. The rule of thumb I use is if the top two inches of soil are dry it's time to water. I believe with first planting, you want to water twice a week for the first 2 weeks, about an inch, and then just back it off to about in inch a week, or less. Irises are pretty hardy. If you over water, you get rot, so just try to find the happy medium. Other than that, they can thrive. The people on here are very helpful if you run into future problems too. Hope I helped! Happy planting! -Liz

There is a really drought-tolerant/heat-tolerant yaupon shrub, it's a dwarf, evergreen, and grows in a compact mounding form. I have them planted in front of my business in a bricked in container and they look great all year. The growth rate is medium, and they are very dense. All mine get is rain and blaring sun. I included a link to a nursery I found while googling them...do a google image search, and you should find some in natural shape, and some in sheared form...Should be great in a xeriscape, I would think. But then, I DO love irises, and there's always mexican heather (a great xeriscape choice), when given the space and time, it gets pretty full and tall. Mine are about 16-24" tall, and about as wide each. I planted them about 8 years ago, and they are still growing strong. They got to their full size the second summer. I have them in front of a variegated pittosporum hedge, and they hold their own (these also get nothing but rain, the more rain, the broader the leaves). Agapanthus (Lily of the Nile?) is also a good one - big broad foliage pretty much year round, big firework-like blooms, and they like neglect. Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf Yaupons

Very odd. I would mark the 2 iris that did this for next year's observation. Iris leaf spot is not responsible. It's common and non-threatening. Just disfiguring. Some years worse than others. Spraying with a fungicide at first appearance will innoculate the unaffected portions. The odd leaf tip turning yellow happens, more as the summer progresses. Remember to let the soil dry between soakings. Nice beds! Bone meal is dug in when dividing and its phosphorous is available to the roots down the road. It doesn't travel down to the roots like nitrogen.

mj, ok, I'll try to say this without ruffling your feathers too much, but, you have so many different elements on your home, that they are fighting with each other. two diff style doors, brick, stone, siding, windows with grids, windows without grids, reds, grays, charcoal, white, tan, cream, brown,,,,whew! I'd get a front door that matches your single light french doors. The faux-victorian door you have is just another added element that you don't need. Paint both of the doors gray. see how unifying these two calms things down a bit? If you can, switch out your front door to a single lite or even three light model. If you whitewashed your brick, it would look even better w/that added stone. this was done w/Romabio. imagine your brick done like this. would look much nicer w/your gray and stone work. then you could paint your doors another color. is that the garage over to the left?