Expert: Long Island Gardener - 9/30/2006

Question
i realize that is is too late in the year to transplant my bulbs as i am in north eastern ny.  how do i dig them up and dry them for transplanting in the spring?  they were very expensive bulbs and due to my not so amniable divorce they need to be moved now.

Answer
Michelle, I need to know what kind of bulbs you are talking about - these are spring summer autumn bulbs?  What's growing out of them?  I would not say it is too late yet anywhere in New York.  rsvp asap!

OK - for some reason, I did not see the subject line - Bearded Irises.  Let's get down to business.

As far as I can see, if your new garden has not frozen solid yet, you can still get those Irises in the ground this weekend.

And yes, they do get expensive.

Bearded irises are some of the most popular, toughest spring landscape plants, and there are thousands of them.  The dwarfs bloom first, around April or May. The tall types bloom later, May and June. Sometimes you'll find a cultivar that reblooms late in the summer.

One of the important things you can do for your bearded irises is that you can divde them now and then to increase their vigor.  This is something many people expect to do every 3-5 years.   If you don't, they run out of steam, and blooming slows down or even stops as they become more and more crowded.  

While the IDEAL time to divide or transplant these is no later than August, you can still get them quickly out of the ground and down into a new situation, divided if needed, right now.  The thick, underground rhizomes can be dug and the leaves can be trimmed back a third.  Then wash off all the soil with a blast of water. Slice the rhizomes with a knife, keeping at least one fan of leaves, a healthy rhizome, and some of the bigger roots.

When you're ready to plant, find a spot that is well-drained and gets full sun. You'll get the best flowers that way.

When you get to planting the irises, get the whole rhizome and roots in the hole you dig. Mound some dirt in the middle of the hole, place one rhizome at the top of the mounded dirt, and fan out the roots. I like to toss in a lot of bone meal when I'm planting in the fall.  Cover with soil, so that the rhizome is just under the surface of the soil. Water and wait.


As you can guess, newly transplanted irises are less tough than usual their first winter.  To avoid damage, put down a thing layer of straw after the ground freezes.  Take off the mulch in early spring. Don't expect a big flower show from these new divisions; bearded irises don't bloom generously their first spring. The plants should be in full bloom in their second and third years.

Now... Can I tell you about my first husband?

I had plants all over the house in our apartment.  We had a roof deck - because I would never move anywhere there was no outdoor space - and there were trees all over the deck up there.  We had Orchids, we had spring bulbs, we had tropical plants and it was in Brooklyn, off a hill called Park Slope, where we could watch the sun set over Manhattan.

Well, he was a clean freak.  I too love things to be neat and tidy.  But if there's one thing plants need, it's dirt.  There is a difference to me between soil and dirt.  But not to him.  And those plants drove him absolutely nuts.

But we survived.  Especially when they bloomed.  He liked that, too.

And then, one day when I was pregnant, I saw it:  An orange tree on sale.  And they had TWO left!

These were not your ordinary potted Citrus.  These were major sized, 15 foot tall, Robinson Navel Orange Trees in 36 inch pots.  They would need a delivery truck to get them home, and then they would have to be pruned to get them in the door and on the roof... but they were beautiful, and they were on sale, and no one in Brooklyn ever sells Orange Trees.  I ran home to tell him the good news.

To my surprise, he was less pleased than I expected.  I was thinking how wonderful it would be to pick our own oranges in the summer off our own trees on the roof.  The conversation-piece value of these trees.  The shade they would give us, and the fragrance of those orange flowers in the dead of winter.

And he was thinking, 36-inch pots filled with dirt.  2 of them.  Dropping leaves.  And the ultimatum came.

Either I could have the Trees or I could have Him.

So, I got a divorce.