The iris will do OK if you divide them in late summer or early fall....but they will do better if you divide them right after they bloom. All I know says that spring is the best time to plant all varieties. But you are wanting to know when is best to dig up what you have... Probably they would be happiest in their new home if you dug them in early spring, but you would sacrifice this year's bloom. So...divide them right after they bloom for best results. Linda C

Just joined GW and have been reading many of the "Hot and Dry" maple threads. As a former Northeaster looking for Fall Colors I've decided to try numerous trees down here to see what works best. I'm in San Antonio in the "toes" of the Hill Country on the NW side. 8-10 of "soil" and then rock/caliche. Testing either in ground or in pots (need pots as I can't get everything in the ground) Shantung, both "normal" and "Fire Dragon" - planted Caddo "John Pair" - dirt bag Big Tooth sourced from Love Creek (in ground) and Big Tooth from online (dirt pot) Mexican Sugar Maple (2) - dirt pots Chalk Maple (2) - dirt pots Also testing a Paperbark and Trident Maple. Want to also get a Flashfire Caddo and Highland Park Big Tooth but sourcing is $$ and my wife might kill me. Maybe in the early spring... We'll see how it all goes and will post up next spring. Fingers crossed. This post was edited by mattm01 on Wed, Dec 5, 12 at 16:23

I have found that Salvia Black & Blue is a bit floppy in part sun in my experience. It does seem to like a fair amount of water in my garden, foliage looking a bit tattered and not blooming quite as well if it doesn't get regular moisture. I grow it as an annual and can't imagine my garden without it. I saw it first about 5 years ago and it was love at first sight; I've grown it every year since then in large pots where I can enjoy the hummingbirds coming to visit it. I was thinking along the same path as T2D, though not sweet autumn since it can be a seeding nightmare in warmer areas. There are a bunch of less vigorous, long-blooming clematis in blue shades: Rhapsody has a reputation for really long bloom and a lovely mid-blue to blue-purple color. Venosa Violacea is another stunning one, with a wide, deep-purple edging that bleeds into white tepal centers. VV will bloom from July through August in my garden, and Rhapsody (though I don't grow it) should provide at least some flowers virtually all summer with heavier flushes at times. Both are fine in part shade and have the potential to get 10 to 15 feet, but you could either give them a good-sized oblelisk or as T2D suggested give them some string or netting to help them along your porch railings. If you don't want to look at dead vines all winter, both can be trimmed to a couple of feet for winter (and VV really should be) though it will delay Rhapsody's bloom start a bit if you do that. Clematis does like more moisture than iris and shouldn't get dry (regular moisture and mulch are recommended) so for either clematis or if you decide on the Salvia B&B you might want to put in a loop of soaker hose under the mulch to make watering easy if there isn't regular rain. If you want to restrict it to the obelisk, there are shorter clematis that should bloom well, particularly some of the ones that were developed by Raymond Evison which along with their sales names will have a name that has Evipo and a number. Alternatively, ones bred by Kivistik tend to stay below 6 feet at most and have a reputation for being great plants. Below I've given you a link to a good source of the Kivistik clems. With clematis, you should plan to either get a good-sized plant or expect to wait a couple of years for the plant to grow to a good size. It's worth the wait, however! Here is a link that might be useful: Kivistik clematis at Hummingbird Farm

This is just about the right time to divide/move iris anyway, and daylilies are tough - I don't think moving them now will cause anything more than probable loss of bloom this season. As for the rest, if the beds are prepared, I don't see how keeping them in pots until fall would be any better than putting them into well-prepared beds; soil temps and moisture levels will probably be more consistent, especially if you mulch well. The only benefit of potting might be that you could keep them in some shade until well established? If that's the case, I'd feel better putting them in their permanent homes and rigging up some kind of temporary shade. I'll be interested to see how others weigh in on this, as I've never understood the point of transplanting to pots and then again to the bed ... seems like traumatizing the poor thing twice.