Good morning, and the worst is yet to come. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
After the unseasonable cool of a week ago, Denver has undergone a radical weather change. For the past week we've been steadily in the mid to upper 90s, with no real thunderstorm activity to cool things down.
The forecast for tomorrow is for 100°, hotter than it got all last year. The remainder of the week may be a few degrees cooler, but still in the 90s.
On Wednesday I went out bright and early to deadhead flowers, mow the lawn, and start watering. By the end of the day I'd managed to get at least some water on every area, and started the task of dividing the iris in the back yard.
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This clump of iris started as a single rhizome planted 3 or 4 years ago. It's multiplied wonderfully, but was getting squished where it was planted. For once I managed to lift the entire clump with none of it breaking off -- a rare accomplishment for me. A spading fork is the ideal tool for this job; and it helped that the soil had been well watered a couple of days ago. In the center you can see the original rhizome, now beat to hell and darker in color. When you divide a clump of iris, that mother rhizome can generally be discarded |
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The tools that you'll need to finish the job are a sharp blade — a utility knife works great — and a scissors. You may be able to just snap the rhizomes apart (I often do), but it's good to have a blade available in case that's not an option.
This rhizome is an ideal specimen: it's full and well-rounded, and has put forth vigorous fresh roots. It's very likely that this rhizome will bloom next year in a new home.
When I have a lot of a particular variety of iris (and it's shocking just how many rhizomes are in a well-packed clump), I generally keep only rhizomes of this size and quality. However, I only have one clump of this type and, as I want to eventually have a lot more, I'll be planting all the rhizomes — the small ones may not bloom for several years, but eventually they will be the par-ents of vigorous new clumps.
So, separate off all the rhizomes from around the outside of the clump. You probably will want to discard any rhizome that bloomed this year, and the original mother rhizome |
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A big question for iris novices is "how far back should I trim the leaves?"
Iris are so nice — they tell you! Trim the leaves at the point where the fan of leaves starts to separate. That's usually somewhere between 3" and 6". |
While one generally will just discard the mother rhizome, and those which bloomed this year, if one is trying to get the maximum multiplication of the variety one should look at them carefully: usually there will be some very small buds on them and those little buds will, eventually, grow into rhizomes of blooming size.
Bearded iris are extremely tough, and you can abuse the rhizomes horribly without killing them. However, to maximize the chances of their blooming next year, plant as soon as you can — spreading the roots into a hole as deep as the roots, and leaving the backs for the rhizomes exposed. Plant them 6" to 12" inches apart (they'll look terribly lonely, but they'll fill in faster than you can imagine), and water them in well.
If you can't plant them right away, just keep the rhizomes out of the sun. It's nice if you can wrap the roots in damp paper towels; or perhaps spray them with water every few days — but you can also just pop them in a paper bag and they'll keep quite nicely for a few days with no special treatment.
In fact, I've had iris rhizomes go through a chipper; lay on cement in the sun for months; be left untended in the basement cold storage for 9 months — and they still bloomed within a year or so.
That's what's happening here? What's going on in your gardens?
Update [2010-7-17 9:5:51 by Frankenoid]: OK -- another battle won with phantom html errors. Hopefully with dK4 it will be a thing of the past.