irises....

[Greenthumb18]

Little did i know that i was going to have some irises blooming , i didnt expect blooms i just planted them this past fall. :rose But i was very happy to see a few flower buds popping through the leaves, i never has Irises in my garden before but i gotta say they look amazing and the flower didnt bloom yet. I actually found a way to detect if a iris plant would develop a flower, if you run your fingers through the iris stem you can feel like a pen or some kind of firm structure in the iris stalk. I did this and found that other iris plants i have might develop a flower i did feel a flower bud when i ran my hand through the plant.

 

[digitS']

Interesting about feeling the flower stalk before it appears, Greenthumb.

I have something of a love/hate relationship with iris. Honestly, it is mostly love since they are my favorite flower. . . beautiful and fragrant, dramatic and tender - multiple flowers on a single stem and such a variety of colors!

They are just above useless as a cut flower - so easily bruised and such a brief life in the vase. And, to rescue them from the weeds, I've had to resign myself to moving them every other year . . . in July!

If you leave them, as temptation would allow, year after year - the quack grass or something will fowl their bed. Except for the weeks of their bloom, you will hate to even look in their direction because of the weeds. And, those weeds are almost impossible to remove with the iris rhizomes growing around them.

The remedy is simple, move them! Rescue them from the d__n weeds. It is really easy enuf but the time to do it comes at the hottest time of the year and my busiest time. So that means, I can really have no more iris than I have time and inclination to move during those final super-heated days of July into August.

Other than that, about the only real problem I've had is suggested by your comment that they are "popping through the leaves." Iris rhizomes need to lay nearly exposed, on the surface of the soil. Covering them with a mulch, which you may not be doing anyway, is risking soft rot. The temptation is to cover those rhizomes but they need only a light covering of soil.

When I'm truly retired - I will have more iris.

Steve