Help! I am freaking out!
nini804
6 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (9)
nini804
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Heeeeeeelp!!!
Comments (10)Yes, it is hard to kill Irises. Years ago my sister gave me a bunch of rhizomes of some older varieties. Being too busy at the time, I threw the bunch of them down in the corner of a garden bed and forgot about them - for months! They shriveled up to little puds, and feeling rather guilty, I finally planted them. Not only did they survive and thrive, but I brought some of them with me to this house and I have numerous drifts of them now! Perhaps the fancy new cultivars are less hardy though? As for soil, Irises like it very well-drained and sandy. Mine are in the hottest, driest, sandiest parts of the gardens. Many are thriving right along the road, where it is very sandy and dry and god knows what splashes up from the road. I rarely water them. Just be sure to plant them with the top of the rhizome at the same level as the surface of the soil....See MoreI am so mad I am going to freak out; I have had it
Comments (21)Suebot - don't think i'm going to tell you anything that somebody else hasn't said, but since i've had too much experience with deer & rabbits, i figured i'd concur with the remedies that worked for me. i used to live/learned to garden on nantucket and martha's vineyard, where the deer are at least as unreasonably tame and probably more abundant than they are in ct. i've heard stories of people standing 10 ft away from them yelling at them while they chomp on their hydrangea flower buds. one woman i was talking to claimed she saw the deer attacking her dalmation!! anyway, my first thought about your original message was are you sure all damage is due to deer and not rabbits? - when they stand on their hind legs, they can eat quite high - on a couple of my client's properties on the islands, i had more problems with bunnies than deer, especially with my daylilies & echinacea. so, i also found success with the deer away spray products; i can't remember which one i used, but i believe it had garlic & mint in it and i actually liked the way it smelled. the directions said to spray every couple of weeks (??), but i found that i had to spray every couple of days or so & definitely after a rain. it was pretty time consuming. unfortunately, my other success was fencing in the gardens. i just tried to be decorative about it - i used nice cedar posts with caps, bird netting @ 4' high (you can't really see it, so the garden still looks nice), i hung rope along the top of the netting (for a nautical look...). I did throw netting on top of the gardens in the spring until things grew too tall, but i have to admit, the deer hopped in a couple of times (- that would've been a mess i kind of would have liked to see). i now live in maine and have a large cutting garden in my back yard, a good distance from my house and i use the bird netting as the fencing (simply because it was the only fencing i could find that would be high enough in one piece) and it works (doesn't handle snow load, though). i see deer in the back and they walk right around the garden. chipmunks are now my problem. unfortunately, my true feeling is that if the deer want to get to something, they will. sorry to be so lengthy, good luck. just out of curiosity, do you have phlox and is it being eaten - that always gets destroyed the worst for me. -mara...See MoreHeeeeeeelp!!!
Comments (7)Relax, Deepti. If they are bearded irises, you haven't killed them. If they are a beardless type, though, they should be in buckets of water so that their roots won't dry out. Do you remember what the flowers looked like? Did they have fuzzy looking "beards" on the top center of each of the lower three petals? If so, they're bearded, and you have nothing to worry about. From your description, it sounds like you're dealing with an extremely overgrown bed of bearded irises. When a bed has been neglected, the rhizomes will often grow on top of each other like that, and the layers can be pulled apart as you describe. You wouldn't be able to separate layers of beardless irises so easily. So let's work from the assumption that they are bearded irises. Before the sun warms up your patio tomorrow morning, move that pile of rzs into the shade or into your garage where they will be out of direct sunlight. Hose the dirt off of the clumps so that you can see where they connect to each other. That way you'll be able to decide how you want to divide them for replanting. You can cut them apart into single rzs or into small clumps, whichever you prefer. Since you have so many rzs and a limited amount of garden area, don't even bother with the leafless ones. They are the old mother rzs that may or may not still have enough energy to grow more babies. Regardless, you don't need to waste garden space on them when you have so many other rzs with foliage to replant. Choose your largest rzs with nice, healthy leaf fans to replant, but avoid the rzs that bloomed this year (you'll see the spent bloomstalk if the rz bloomed this year). Since this garden is new to you and gave you such minimal bloom this year, you don't have any way of knowing if the bed contains irises of just one color or has irises of different colors. For that reason, try to keep a couple of good rzs from each clump to replant. There are always folks who love to receive free irises, and it sounds like you're going to have LOTS of extras to give away. The easy way is to offer them to friends, family, and neighbors. Once they've had their fill, you can put the others in paper bags or boxes on your curb and mark them "FREE IRISES". Chances are they won't be sitting on your curb for long. You can also offer them to your local garden clubs, Master Gardeners, and community gardens. I've even given away iris extras on Freecycle. Go ahead and dig the whole bed out if you have the energy. It'll make it easier to amend the soil and replant at proper spacings. You've already seen what a mess irises turn into when they're overcrowded, so don't replant too closely. If you don't want to have to dig and divide every year, you should plant at least 18" apart. As long as you keep the rzs dry and out of direct sun, they'll be fine for at least a couple of weeks out of the ground if it takes that long to get the rest of the bed dug and ready for replanting. You wouldn't want to replant them right away, anyway, because the cut wounds need several days to heal over before replanting. Your task will be a lot less daunting once you separate the keepers from the giveaways. You don't even have to trim and divide the giveaways if you don't want to. Just breathe, Deepti. You haven't made any mistakes so far. All's well. Laurie...See MoreI am freaking out, lol
Comments (31)We know what you really meant! Myself, I would have a nice thick file at the FBI. Because when the noise started I would paint myself up in camoflauge, stick branches and leaves on me, get the binoculars and a big flashlight and stalk them. Then I would stand in the back yard with my "rifle"-the rake-and point it at the helicopters and make gun noises. After the FBI arrested me I would go on Good Morning America to proclaim my innocence and c/o the government spying on good old American gardeners who are just trying to help end hunger. And that was just plain old mud stuck to me, thank you very much, and who EVER heard of shooting at a helicopter with a rake? The government has gone crazy, first tapping out phones, then how we spend our money, that right there is proof, all my money goes to nurseries and garden books, 6 of my ancestors fought for this country's freedom way back when, I'm a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution for crying out loud, noone in MY family ever shirked their military duty, my husband is a Vietnam Vet! What is wrong with the government? Terrorist everywhere and they are scaring and arresting gardeners! Of course, I probably already have a file with the FBI!! Keep your head down! Tally HO!...See Morenini804
6 years agonini804
6 years ago
Related Stories
PAINTINGHelp! I Spilled Paint on My Clothes — Now What?
If you’ve spattered paint on your favorite jeans, here’s what to do next
Full StoryLIFEWhat I Learned While Cleaning Out My Junk Drawers
A homeowner finds some surprises on her journey to junk-free bliss
Full StoryEXTERIORSHelp! What Color Should I Paint My House Exterior?
Real homeowners get real help in choosing paint palettes. Bonus: 3 tips for everyone on picking exterior colors
Full StoryENTRYWAYSHelp! What Color Should I Paint My Front Door?
We come to the rescue of three Houzzers, offering color palette options for the front door, trim and siding
Full StoryREMODELING GUIDESAsk an Architect: How Can I Carve Out a New Room Without Adding On?
When it comes to creating extra room, a mezzanine or loft level can be your best friend
Full StoryFUN HOUZZEverything I Need to Know About Decorating I Learned from Downton Abbey
Mind your manors with these 10 decorating tips from the PBS series, returning on January 5
Full StorySMALL SPACESDownsizing Help: Think ‘Double Duty’ for Small Spaces
Put your rooms and furnishings to work in multiple ways to get the most out of your downsized spaces
Full Story
nicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis