Expert: Laura Walker - 6/1/2006

Question

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Followup To

Question -
I also live in western KY. I have a friend who has very kindly decided to share her bulb divisions and extra plants. I can't very well look a gift horse it the mouth so I need to know how to best transition these plants. Particularly, bent over Iris plants. Can I go ahead and cut them back to 6 inches?

Answer -
Chris,
If these are flag type Irises,which mean they have strong thick blades of foliage then you can plant them at any time. They will not bloom until next spring.
Seperate the rhizomes(rooted part)with a sharp spade or edging tool. Cut of most of the green blades leaving about 8 inches of the blades.
You will need some U shaped metal garden staples to hold them on top of the soil.You can find these staples at garden centers.if you find them just ask and employee.They are usually used for holding down landscape fabric. Flag Irises cannot be planted deep or they won't bloom. Just barely cover the rhizomes with soil and use the garden staples to hold them into place so that they will not fall over. You can remove them(the garden staples) if you want after they are rooted but it won't hurt to leave them in for better support once they start growing again.

Then just water them and that's it. They will eventually lose their green color and turn brown so after that you can cut them back. Some stay green throughout the winter then in spring you can cut off some of the old foliage but do not cut any newly emerging blades from the rhizomes.
Good luck and happy gardening! Hope you have nice beautiful blooms next spring.
Laura Walker
Are Bearded Irises a flag type Iris?

Answer
Yes. I have sent you some links to see the Bearded or "flag" Irises.Just copy and paste these into your browser and click enter.

https://home.comcast.net/ ~mygardensite/iris.jpg


www.plantanswers.com/.../ Bearded%20Iris.jpg

hometown.aol.com/.../ images/bearded%20iris.jpg

Sorry these were illegal URLs obviously. So just go to www.google.com and type in "Bearded Irises" under the Images section of Google.