Spur of the moment, I bought 2 bare root Siberian Iris
today, Caesar’s Brother variety. Sometimes I see big stands of these, and I am
wondering what it takes to make them happy.

I have a Siberian iris of an unknown variety ( brownish
purple) I got at a swap some years ago. I planted the several divisions I got
in 3 different locations, all with decent moisture and good light. But I only
have survivors in one location, and it has hardly flourished. It has a couple
of flowers a year, and the “clump” is so small that when I saw it just last
week I was surprised to see it was still there and alive.

The flowers on the one I have are very very small, too: I
don’t know if that is typical. Smaller even than my dwarf irises, much like the
flower size on an iris reticulata. Which
looks a little odd atop such tall stalks. You only see the flower if you are
right there.

So before I plant these, what do they like? I thought is was
moisture (not sopping wet) and sun. The ones that died out were placed close to
the bottom of a slope, which tends to be more moist. Those had about ¾ day of
sun.

The ones that have lived but not flourished I placed a 3
feet away from a downspout to give them more moisture. That has sun most of the
day, but at times it is filtered.

The only consistently moist spots I have are full shade.
FWIW, I don't have full day sun anywhere. There's always either a tree or a house in the way at some time or other. I can grow other "full sun" plants like lilies and daylilies, though. Thanks for your help.