I would wait until the flower pods dry and split open, personally. Let Mother Nature do the work for you! Yes, yellow flag iris is very invasive. If you deadhead it faithfully, it shouldn't be a problem. The seeds float, and can float "downstream", which is why they're a problem. I just dug all my yellow flag up and put them on the compost pile.

Hi I have a type that is a true blue and grows and flowers much like a beaded Iris Flowers come from a branched stem that grows up to six feet.They also remain open all day and night. It is a "SWAMP type but feel that it's not a Louisianna as the standards stick up much like a bearded. It does require standing water year around so feel sure it's not a beaded/japanese or siberian. If you have a marsh or water garden they are good except VERY invasive lol and they only flower in the spring . gary

Yes. The yellow iris - which was supposed to be blue and descended from the blue flags of Mary Gardiner - is blooming right now. It is bearded. The bud starts out blue tipped then opens to yellow standards and blue striped yellow falls. Within a day or two the blue stripes turned brown and the yellow standards were not really clear yellow any more. We have had heat and rain so that may account for the dulling of the colors. The plant is robust and spreads rapidly. The flowers are 30"to 36" tall and smaller than those of today's. Meanwhile we have been in touch with Dr. Favretti and he says that we obviously have the wrong iris as his ARE blue. He has recently divided his, discarding the extras but has offered us another try after his present clump spreads enough for another divide.I expect to get in touch with him again to see if he knows the botanical name of the Gardiner Island iris and if he could send us a picture. We also tried to make contact with "the President's House" at Yale but got no response, and we have e-mailed the museum at Worden in Holland asking for information about corespondence of Mary Gardiner. Also no answer to date. So the hunt goes on. At least we now know that the yellow iris we have been cherishing as blue flag Gardiner Island is the wrong one and we may discard it. Gnomlet aka Marianne

I took sugar blues with us on our trip. It bloomed with three blooms showing at once. In the mean time the other Iris Clarence bloomed (and is blooming ) in my garden. we have still not had a killing frost. This is my first year of gardening after many years away from it and things are certainly different. I have hollyhocks blooming after 3 months. Foxglove excelsior hybrids in 4 months and even as I write I have zinnias iris cosmos etc etc etc blooming in my garden. We still have not had much other than an occassional bit of patch frost. I wish I knew how to send pics of the two iris now blooming.