Oh, dear: I didn't think about the angle of the photo! If you cut it off at the ground, it will probably come back next year? If you pulled it, re-planting the root might work (they're sold bare-root).

Dora, If these are thrips, they spend most of their time in the blossom because the pollen is the food source. The 'powder' mentioned when thrips are present is the pollen that has spilled out of the sac onto the lower petals. With thrips, if you gently blow on the blossom they will come out to see what is going on (nosy little buggers). It is easier to see them on a darker blossom. They will 'jump' onto leaves and run around too. Thrips aren't fatal. Treatment includes removing all blossoms and spraying three times a week apart. They lay eggs, and that will take care of new hatches. I used Avid. I have also taken plants and put them in a cardboard box. Cut a no-pest strip in half and place in the box for 24 hours, making sure the box is sealed. Do it 3 times, a week apart. I have also heard people putting the plants in a large plastic bag, soaking a paper towel with one of the garden sprays, and placing it in the bag, smae thing, 24 hours, 3 times. I don't remember which spray, but someone else on the forum will for sure. If using a no-pest strip, keep it in a sealed baggie when not in use. Barbara

Not quite sure what you mean by bulbs. Bearded irises have a rhizome at the base of the plant. from this rhizome, new ones grow, which will produce new leaf fans, and eventually new flower stalks. These can be divided and planted as seperate plants when the clum is big enough. Dutch iris grow from a bulb which is smaller than a daffodil bulb, fairly rounded and has a brown papery outer coat. Sometimes bearded irises produce a seedpod at the top of the bloom stalk. This is green, oval in shape and can vary in size from tiny, up to as big as 3" long. This may be empty or contain seeds. If you get one of these, and you haven't deliberately hand pollenated your flowers, then you have what is commonly called a bee pod, because, presumable the bees did the work of pollenating the flower. This will contain seeds from an unknown cross. These can be planted and grown to produce new plants, all of which will be genetically different from each other and both the parent plants. Hope that helps. Cheers, Jan in Australia

Wonbyherwits - that is sort of like I was thinking - maybe a little bigger. Basically, the way the county people described it to me, I should be able to buy the big (10"-12" diameter) black corrugated plastic pipe with Y-shaped "wings" on the ends, that would sort of serve as a funnel to collect the runoff and channel it down into the pipe. But I would want the wings to be only off to the sides, not on the top or bottom, since this pipe has to sit flush on the ground (the ground is too unstable from erosion to dig into it).