It is ENTIRELY normal and nothing to be overly concerned about :-) Every year, this forum gets numerous posts from newbie bulb growers alarmed about the same issue. If the temps remain mild, the foliage of various bulbs (and perennials, like the Siberian iris, Shasta daisies, etc.) will produce some growth. It does not mean the bulbs will be producing blooming stalks too early.....nature has worked it out so that the bulbs flower on schedule as they are supposed to do. And generally, the foliage remains pretty much undamaged by colder weather, when it finally does arrive. IF you have additional concerns, it certainly won't hurt to add a loose mulch - pine straw, shredded leaves, etc. The bulbs will emerge right through it.

Thank you for responding, yea, I know they shouldn't be in pots, it's just that i'm in college and have nowhere to plant them in soil, I live in a condo when i'm back at home, so I don't have any place to plant them there either. They are my grandfathers Irises, and he sold his property to move in with my aunt and uncle, so I took these up to plant at a later date. Once those tiny sprouts are large enough, probably this fall, I will transplant them to other 1 gallon pots so they have room to grow. I have plenty of 1 gallon pots haha. I'm not expecting any blooms out of any of them, they just need to survive. Sad existance, I know, but I keep them in full sun most of the day, even have a sun lamp for cloudy days. I am in Maine at the moment, but I am normally from new york, which is on the border of 5 and 6. As for the dried up rhizome that I had cut off, it is completely dead. After I cut it off I picked off pieces of it to try to examine it and find out what could be causing it to die in the first place. I'm releived at your information on the Iris with many sprouts! But as for my second Iris, the one which I had cut, i'm still not sure if that will be alright. Its rhizome was dying off like the first rhizome, but there arent any tiny shoots, just the one big sprout, do you think it will eventually die?

planted them with the roots down ==>>> when you start with this premise.. you are 99% of the way to success.. lol ... in my z5 .. i wouldnt worry about the soaking part ... and as far as i am concerned.. with this plant.. you could have run it over ... twice ... with the car before planting.. and it will live.. whether or not you get a good flower show.. is dependent on the veracity of the stock you bought .. not what you did with it after ... [if it was some bigboxstore packed in a box plant, rather than a pot grown plant] you also said: I mixed in some composted manure and chopped up the dirt a bit ==>> when you start to understand that you were working the SOIL .. and that you had dirt all over you after you were done playing.. you will come to have a better understanding of what soil development is all about ... words mean things.. and help you to conceptualize what you are doing .. and where you are going ... you were amending the soil to aid in water movement and retention ... through the incorporation of some humus ... which also added some nutrients ... i wouldnt waste much energy.. worrying about this one ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

Mertie, most iris including Siberica are warm-cold-cool germinators, giving most complete germination if they are exposed to a moist warm period before the moist chill. 2-4 weeks moist at room temp, 4-6 moist chill, then brought to warmer but still cool (50ishF) for germination and the moist periods must be in that order. (think Fall, winter, late winter to spring as what would occur if the plants had self sown and dropped their seed to the ground, you are mimicking those conditions) Where your seed has been exposed to a range of temps now, we still can't assume to know how moist they were - and they must be moist to overcome the dormancy. I'd sow (pots), and watch them. You might be surprised with the initial warm moist period to find some germination, happened to me with iris chrysographes a couple of years ago. It wasn't entirely a welcome surprise, I'd planned to put the pots outside for their chill and not care for them indoors for the remaining of winter ;)