the heck with the designers ... they are a bunch of foo foo moe-rons anyway ... WHATEVER.. AND WHERE EVER PLEASES YOU.. is the ONLY rule in my garden ... and if it doesnt work out.. move it later ... some iris have very specific cultural requirements which make them hard to place in a diverse garden ... but i forget which ... its the swamp ones.. japanese i think .. but they are not the bearded ones ... so it probably doenst matter to you.. which makes me wonder why i am still typing and not just deleting this near worthless post.. lol ... but i cant stop.. too much cooooffffeeeeee what ever pleases your eye.. should be the only rule for your garden.. and that does bear repeating.. or is it bare.. which i doubt.. boy.. talk about stream of consciousness ... lol good luck ken ps: i have them all over the conifer beds .... i suppose the designers would probably cringe at that too ....

Signet, remember you are also a zone 6 which means that you get frost a lot later than we do in zone 2 or 3. So, being that replanting the iris needs to be with enough time to get the iris re-established before freeze up here in zone 2 - 3, that means that replanting should be done no later than the end of August. A friend of mine has hundreds and hundreds of iris here in the Brandon area and that is the advice that she gives. There is a problem though when buying irises in the fall here on the prairies because the Ontario and BC growers will not send out the irises to the nurseries and box stores until about the middle of September and then it is usually only the tall German irises and the occasional SDB that are sent. They do not ideally have time to get established before our freezeups. So, now, when buying some of these, I have grown them over in the house for the winter and planted them out into the garden in the spring. Personally, so far, I have never had a problem here with irises heaving out of the ground. I rather think that I would be unable to stomp them back into the ground because once my ground is frozen, it is frozen. A friend of mine lives in Dartmouth and she does have perennials heave out of the ground in the winter. I know that she is rather frustrated sometimes when it happens. Do you feel the same way Signet? I have had problems with deer coming and pulling/nibbling on the iris just before freezeup and thus leaving the iris on the top of the soil for the winter, but that is a different story. Brenda

Not adequately established: Some iris cultivars need a year or more to fully establish in their new locations before blooming. If you relocate them frequently, they may never become well enough established to bloom. Plant irises far enough apart to allow for several years' growth before requiring division. Inadequate sun: Bearded irises need at least 6 hrs of direct sun a day to bloom well. Nutrient deficiencies: Consider having a soil test run to make sure your soil provides all necessary plant nutrients in appropriate amounts and fertilize according to the recommendations returned with the soil analysis. Soil that has been growing irises for many years without amendments or fertilization is probably nutritionally depleted. Avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers. If bearded irises are fed high-nitrogen fertilizers, they may grow lush foliage with little or no bloom. Inappropriate watering: Bearded irises might not bloom well if they experience periods of extended drought, though the plants themselves are quite drought-tolerant. Conversely, bearded irises that are overwatered are often susceptible to bacterial soft rot and fungal leaf spot infections. If you provide supplemental water, water deeply no more than once a week. Soaker hoses are preferable to overhead watering to avoid spreading leaf diseases from plant to plant. Planted too deeply: Bearded iris rhizomes should be planted so the tops of the rhizomes are at or slightly below the soil surface. If planted too deeply, bearded irises will grow leaves but may not flower. Be careful, also, not to allow mulch to cover the rhizomes. Make sure any mulch is pushed away from the rhizomes. Overcrowding: Overcrowded clumps often quit blooming until they are divided, OR irises closely planted with other plants may not bloom well (or at all) if they are struggling to compete for sunlight, water, and soil nutrients. Weeds: There are certain weeds and grasses that are so aggressive they can inhibit the performance or even survival of plants they invade (Canada thistle being one of them). Keep the weeds and grasses away from your irises. Ill health: Irises that are diseased or under insect attack may not be able to bloom until the problem is eliminated. Late freezes: Killing freezes that are severe enough to damage iris foliage within six to eight weeks prior to normal bloom can abort developing stalks even if the stalks are not yet showing above the foliage. Immature rhizome: Rhizomes will not bloom until they are mature. If you have planted smaller rzs, you probably need only wait for them to grow a bit before they'll bloom. Irregular bloomer: All irises are not created equal. While some irises may bloom very regularly in your garden once established, others may never do any better than blooming once every several years ... or perhaps never blooming at all. The same cultivars that bloom beautifully and reliably for a neighbor down the road or a friend across the country may do nothing more than sulk in your own garden. The only way to discover which irises will perform best for you is to keep trying different cultivars, growing them properly, and replacing those that don't meet expectations within 2-3 years after planting. Still have questions? Join us on the Iris forum where you'll find friendly, helpful iris lovers! LaurieF Image by: carlos42180 Megabucks Bearded Iris

I have heavy clay here, after moving from very well draining, but non wetting soil. My clay holds water very well, and also sits above the septic drainage bed. I rarely ever water the irises. The first year I had huge problems with rot, and masses of increase which could not move out away from the mother rhizome, so the clumps were really tight and congested. From late Nov 2003 through to around May 2004, I gradually dug all my beds (4 beds, 18ft X 9ft each) one at a time. I removed every clump from a bed, culled a lot of very poor doers, took only the very best rhizomes from each clump, carefully named them, trimmed them back and put them aside - 1 large plant pot for each variety. Then I rotary hoed in 1 trailer load of black sand (the sort that doesn't set like concrete) 1 big bag of gypsum, and 1/2 trailer load of well rotted cow manure. Once I had a fine tilth, I dug 5 trenches, evenly spaced, across the beds, and raked the soil up into 6 beds, around 6" higher than they had been before. Then I planted the rhizomes back in to the fresh bed, and started work on the next bed. It took ages, but it paid off. I have a fifth bed to do this year. It wasn't too bad before but has dropped a bit. Clay is generally very fertile, but you need to keep it from getting either too wet or too dry. Generally it is not a good idea to mulch bearded irises, but I would advise you to try, at least with part of a bed, to see if you can keep the clay moist. I use pea straw on some beds, and find the irises do quite well. It keeps the weeds down and the soil friable, but I have to continually scrape the mulch back away from the rhizomes, as the blackbirds fling it round. Yes irises do suffer from sunburn in Australia, and you may be able to overcome this simply by covering them with handfulls of sand in summer. I would recommend you do a soil test for pH, and if the soil is on the acid side, be very liberal with lime. You probably don't need to fertilise, and once the soil is lightened, and easy to work, you shouldn't need to water them every 2 days. Once a fortnight is plenty. watering in the hottest part of summer will often create humidity round the rhizome, and result in rot. That's probably more than you wanted to know, so i'll stop ther :-) Cheers, Jan