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How do you plant these rhizomes?

18 years ago

Hello, I hope someone can tell me how to plant some heirloom bearded iris I just got at a swap. I've always planted the rhizome horizontal to the ground. But the rhizomes I just got have the leaves growing on the "top" and the rhizome and roots straight under the growth ... as if you have to plant the rhizome down into the ground like other plants. I'm not sure what to do. If I plant the rhizome along the ground the leaves are parallel to the ground. If I plant the rhizome straight down into the ground it does not seem right? Please set me straight and help me so I don't lose these lovely plants.

Thank you.

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Comments (4)

randy_ca
18 years ago
I would plant the rhizome horizontal to the ground with the roots down and let the leaves naturally straighten up.
May look funny at first, but they should start growing upward.
The reason they grew like this is because the clump was thick and crowded and the increase on the sides had no other way to grow, so they just grew outwards from the sides of the clump.
laurief_gw
18 years ago
When I get rzs like that, I try to find a happy medium. I plant it so that the leaves are as close to upright as possible, though they inevitably end up a bit tilted off vertical. If the end of the rz is buried underground, so be it. It'll adjust itself over the first year, anyway.

Laurie
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randy_ca
18 years ago
Laurie,
Lol, that's what I try to do, find a happy medium.
It's ok to bury the toe, the heel where the fans are should touch the soil, since that's where the new roots will come from.

Randy
ccaryl
Original Author
18 years ago
Thank you very much for the great advice. I will ... find a happy medium and hope for the best. THis is my first time growing heirloom iris and I can't wait to see the blooms.

Thank you so much.

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