The rhizome had NO leaves!? Did you take a picture?

Are ALL the rhizomes from ebay without leaves?

Zophra,
Selling a rhizome without one fan of leaves is .............nuts.
But they may put out little nubbins on the sides. If one of more of these do not appear in a month I would try to contact him and tell him the situation. If that is impossible isn't there a place on Ebay to rate the seller?
Since you watered well after planting you did nothing wrong.
The cultivars you mentioned are nice ones.

I have sold iris on ebay, but never any with no leaves! How did he mark these as to which was which?
Did he state in the auction that the iris he was selling were in this condition? What is his user id? I would like to see his feedback and look at any auctions he still has up. Also when did you purchase these? Very recently? If so you can contact him if you are not happy and then if you still aren't happy with the results, you would leave appropriate feedback for that person, which is good to do, so the next person doesn't have to go through what you did.

Yvette

I found his auctions, he sells iris mostly by colors, also in his auction title he puts, 2", 3", my guess is that is the size of the piece of root you are buying? From what I can tell of his pictures they look like they were packaged roots.
You have come to the right place to learn about iris:) Browse around the gallery, there might even be some photos of what rhizomes you buy should look like and continue with the FAQ section and here to ask other questions you might have.

I buy them alot. Sometimes on ebay. Always they have had some leaves, except when I've bought them in a dormant condition in packages.

Don't overwater them. Irises will rot if they stay too moist. I don't water mine except when I initially put them in the ground since we get rain relatively often here in Middle Tennessee.

I'd contact the sellar now to let him know you are worried about them since they haven't put out any leaves yet. Then I'd then watch them for a few more weeks to see if they start sending up a shoot anywhere. Chances are, if the rhizomes are firm, they are still alive. They will likely work on establishing some roots before they'll send up any top growth. I wouldn't give up on them yet unless they are wrinkled up and crumbly - if that's the case, then you should call the sellar and insist on getting your money back. Most eBay sellars want to keep their feedback positive. Give him a chance to make things right before you give a neutral or negative feedback. He will learn how to do better in the future through this experience and you will most likely get your money back or he may offer to send you more (with leaves on them this time). If he wants to be a sucessful eBay sellar, he will go above and beyond to ensure you are a satisfied customer.

wow. thank you so much for all your advice. he sold them with absolutely no leaves, just a good hunk of rhizome. I just suppossed he knew what he was doing since he has alot of iris up for sale and I am pretty new at this (planted them with a gardening manual in hand). I guess I'm regretfully going to stalk this nice man. :(
Tamara

tamara if you would like a box for postage send me an email, i sell my iris at a different auction site and hate that someone took advantage of you. its getting late, you need to get your iris planted quickly before winter, but i assure mine come with leaves...

You could always gently try to lift one to see if it is putting out any new roots. After 3 weeks they should have roots beginning to grow. I know when we had the high winds from KAtrina quite a few of my newest transplants were knocked over and they all had signs of root growth.
If they do have new roots, then the iris leaves should come up after the irises have had time.

littlebit

Hi Tamara,
I'm so sorry someone sold you rhizomes without leaves! I have sold and bought irises on Ebay, some of the most beautiful rhizomes I ever bought were on Ebay, but....it is definitely a "buyer beware" situation. Check the feedback of the person before you ever place a bid. The feedback is critical, not how nice the emails are.
The other important thing; keep records of what you bought from whom. You can buy the prettiest fattest rhizomes only to find out they were mislabeled when they bloom next spring. Any honorable seller will send replacement rhizomes
for misnamed ones.
There are many wonderful home gardening iris sellers on Ebay. Most of us sell to help pay for all the new ones we want to buy! Some people probably actually make good money at it. It sounds like the guy who sold you the leafless rhizomes is not really a gardener. Give him a chance to make good. If he doesn't leave him feedback explaining what happened...
Good luck, Merlie

if you get this, QUICK, send me your address i am leaving for the post office in an hour or two!

jain...

What a nice thing to do! I have always thought there was something really special about iris people.

Shilty

address sent to jain - yes, iris prple are nice! The seller contacted me right away and assured me that his leafless iris "will be fine." I contacted him back as to when can I definitively say the are "not fine". I just I'm just left hanging...
I am going to gently...oh so very gently...lift one of the dead-looking rhizomes and see what is going on underneath as littlebit suggested.
Tamara

When you say 'no leaves on the rhizome', it sounds like this would only be possible if someone deliberately removed them, perhaps because they were old, dry, or maybe even rotten! Almost every iris seller digs his rhizomes right before shipment, so that the rhizome has some green leaves on it and it looks nice. Sounds like your rhizomes have been dug a while ago and unattractive foliage removed.
But that does not mean they are bad. Espcially if the rhizome is still hard. They may take a while to sprout, so don't give up. At the same time you could send the seller a 'friendly' note inquiring what happened that he removed the leaves, as most other rhizomes you have acquiared had some foliage attached.
Laetitia

Could this have been one of those AB's that grow in Northern Calif area and this is the season when it is "brown"?
I ordered Turkish Topez and it came with a nice solid rhizone and very brown dried up leaves. I wrote to seller and he explained what I had purchased to me. I just ordered it without thinking because I thought it was pretty.!!
Marian

You don't say how many iris rhizomes he sent you for forty dollars, but unless it numbers in the dozens you did not get a fair deal. It sounds like you were shipped older 'mother' rhizomes that are sometimes discarded when space is a consideration, because their flowering potential is diminshed after a certain number of years. These types can be leafless but with labor-intensive attention are sometimes induced to put out growth or even bloom. But who wants to bother with that if you paid a total stranger to send you good quality iris? I would feel shafted if this happened to me -- I'd ask the eBay seller for my money back or at least a partial refund.

I bought 2 rhizomes each of 4 named irises.
I pulled up/ looked under one very unhappy rhizome and it had the same roots that it arrived with, but still looked "deflated"; lack of turgor pressure? I think it's going to rot. So, why not at this point - I looked at another - this one's had about 50% of its roots better"inflated" and white, with a bit of new root growth showing. I think about 3 of my 8 are going to rot if the dried area around the cut stem is any indicator like the first rhizome I looked at. 2 I have no idea. And maybe the other 3 will make it. What will happen if these three can't make leaves in time before frostand have depleted their stored energy in making new roots? Will they have enough stored "energy" to make it through the winter and spring growth....(I'm not sure how this works - I'm comparing to a tulip "where the leaves stay on until they yellow- brown" concept to get good spring growth the following spring) I guess I'm not seeing any blooms next spring, huh?
The ebay seller did write me again and said to keep him informed. I don't think he did it on purpose. His feedback is surprisingly overwhelmingly positive and he mainly does iris. Weird.
Tamara

If these are named irises how did the man mark which iris was which when he shipped them to you???
I personally would be pissed beyond belief and would be demanding my money back. Honey if you paid $40 for 8 irises that had no fans you got ripped.
I do sell mine to ladies that my hubby works with that always want them when I divide my beds. I would have sent you 20-25 irises for that amount. littlebit

There are a lot of good and honest sellers on ebay, however unfortunately you do get people that are in it completely for the money and beyond that donÂt really care about the quality of what they are selling. I don't believe that ANY seasoned iris grower would try to sell off what you have described. As mentioned above it sounds like what you have is the "mother" rhizome, or else you have rhizomes that were purchased at a box or wholesale store and either cut down or stored so long that the leaves are now gone. Which means you should get lucky with some of them and have small rhizomes starts on the side, but most probably won't do anything. Either way without any leaves at all your chances of the iris blooming the first (and most likely even the second year) are next to none. I donÂt know if the guy purposely ripped you off or just doesnÂt know what heÂs doing, but I would say most likely if heÂs been selling these "bulbs" for awhile then he knows exactly what heÂs selling. I looked up the seller and agree with what ymeador says about the pictures, I would say its extremely unlikely these are anything but packaged iris.

Being that you are located in zone 6 I would not wait until next spring to see if they happen to live. People are usually always going to seem nice when they are wanting money from you and I have a suspicion that if this guy doesnÂt have the ebay transaction hanging over his head he will basically tell you too bad. Ebay gives you 90 days from the time the transaction ends before they delete all record of that transaction. If it was me I would probably give them about 2 more weeks, watering them just as you have, to see if there is any signs of growth...the new roots are a good sign, but 40.00 is a lot to pay for 8 rhizomes that just barely live. If there has not been any by that time I would email the seller and ask for a refund, if he refuses then file a fraud complaint with ebay.

He marked them by wrapping each type in paper and putting a labelled piece of masking tape around it. I had no problems with this. I hesitate to contact him again and ask him why he shipped with leaves off and no, I don't think he shipped from CA or so. I am pathetic at "demanding" anything. (Well, except where my children are concerned - totally different person emerges). I'm pretty happy that Jain is sending me some new types - it will be like Christmas!
Tamara

I, too, would like to know which Ebay seller this was since I have lots of bids in right now and want to know if any of them are with him.
Thank you.
Michelle :)

Michelle,
I don't want to put the seller's name on the forum in case he does made good and replaces them or gives me a refund. He told me to wait a bit longer and keep him posted how they were doing. I'll comtemplate after that whether I smear his iris-selling name. However, contact me directly at Zophra@comcast.net and I'll give you and anyone else the information if you don't post it.
Tamara