I would like to know if this has happened to anyone ever.

I moved to a new home 12 yrs ago. I relocated most of my gardens because the real estate agent said it would sell if I pared down the gardens. So I relocated lots and lots of Iris. Large clumps of Iris.

I am on a few acres so I had a lot of different areas that they were planted. They came up and bloomed first yr planted. I ordered more since I had so much land.

The 3rd yr nothing. No sign that Iris ever existed. All of them every garden every area. As I said these were large clumps

Do you know of any animal that would eat rizhome? I still have the Japanese Iris one or two Siberian they are the only ones that seem not to be tasty.

Cinta said:I would like to know if this has happened to anyone ever.

I moved to a new home 12 yrs ago. I relocated most of my gardens because the real estate agent said it would sell if I pared down the gardens. So I relocated lots and lots of Iris. Large clumps of Iris.

I am on a few acres so I had a lot of different areas that they were planted. They came up and bloomed first yr planted. I ordered more since I had so much land.

The 3rd yr nothing. No sign that Iris ever existed. All of them every garden every area. As I said these were large clumps

Do you know of any animal that would eat rizhome? I still have the Japanese Iris one or two Siberian they are the only ones that seem not to be tasty.

Do you have deer?

I agree deer come to mind.

do you have gophers, or voles?

Maybe all three?

I had Iris disappear & attributed it to animals of a different sort -human beings !

Good Lord Do I have deer Herds of them and Gophers, Groundhogs, raccoons. I thought Deer did not eat iris. They ate all my daylilies and lilies, hosta. But in the three yrs they never ate the iris. I thought I was safe especially in the winter.

I know it was not human because it would take someone a lot of time to dig up all the iris out there in the middle of winter. They had bloomed perfect the summer and all disappeared after winter.

I have had deer, raccoons, possums, skunks, chipmunks, groundhogs, moles etc. Never had them take out iris in masses, but I don't have herds. Well, probably have herds of moles. I am also in farming area, so they may have tastier things to eat.

Maybe it was an infestation of Iris borer, then. I simply explained, what I thought the culprits were , in my case !

@alilyfan, I live in a suburban area every house on the road has at least a couple of acres of land. All have at least an acre of undeveloped area either on the side or behind the houses. So it would seem they have something to eat without digging up iris.

I thought if someone had it before I could maybe devise something during the winter to avoid it happening again.

Since it seems most think it is deer or at least an above ground critter I am thinking of laying chicken wire. I will report back so if anyone else has this problem in the future it might help them,

It really mystifies me. Seems it it were moles or voles you would see their tunnels. It the iris succumbed to rot, still seems as if there would be something remaining. They would be frozen for the most part. I hope you do post back if you find our what it was, and it does not happen again!

I have deer problems here, but they never touch my iris. They go after hosta and daylily (buds and flowers) mainly. I use Bobbex starting early in the spring and throughout the summer on those, and that has helped enormously.

As for your problem of disappearing large clumps, that is a mystery. I have had mice take out huge patches of Oriental poppy. They tunneled under the snow to do it.

Well we do have mice. Guess that is to be expected with this much wooded areas. I look out in the winter and the deer are actually laying in the yard taking a nap so I guess after eating all the Iris they need a nap.

The deer do not eat the Iris through growing and blooming perhaps winter hunger they are eating them. I do not know. For now half in the ground half in pots until I figure this out. I am not going to lose all of a iris I like and have to replace it again. I am going to have back up.

To me, it sounds more like they succumbed to an infestation of borer and rot. Back in the 1990s when I was ill and neglecting my garden, I lost all my iris but one, all at once in similar fashion. Since I finally replanted several years ago, I've noticed that the deer (we have a herd of at least 5) and the groundhogs (families under every tool shed in the neighborhood) do NOT eat the iris. So, I've decided that borer and rot are the greatest risks, especially if they get overcrowded (which mine were when they suddenly died). They need to be divided and spread out when they get crowded, checking for borer and rot when they are dug up.

Which reminds me, I definitely need to divide and spread out my glorious clump of Beverly Sills

And also my lavender NOID, which originally had a label that I lost. I think it's probably Bubbling Over.


If anyone here wants a rhizome of either of these beauties, please check my "want list" and see what you might have to trade. Since my garden has only been restarted three years ago, at this point I can only do trades.

@DaisyDo, I would agree with you but I have had borer and there is a sign of at least the dried skin or some sign they were there. It was immediately after winter.

The Spring Summer before they were great. I cannot see that no sign through out acres of gardens in different areas. This is not in one garden or two. We are talking distances of 20 and 50 ft from each garden. Front 125' to the back area. Something ate all winter. I just think it is a animal.

I am sort of going with deer since I have seen 10 - 15 deer in the back and more in the front. I told my daughter there is a 5 Star restaurant location with my address passed around to the deer population.

I know rats and mice will take and probably eat iris. When we moved, I dug and boxed my iris. One day I noticed the iris were scattered and a pile of them were pulled under the foundation of my garden shed. We had no deer nor gophers.

i've had iris disappear; i think grass and weeds just took them over.

One of my customers told me years ago that rabbits eat iris. And nutria will eat almost anythng to death, if you have that imported pest around.

Chipmunks and squirrels will, also. My daughter has seen them pulling iris from the ground. It is the rhizome they are after.

We have lots of deer - saw one group of 23 in my neighbor's 1 acre yard last summer coming down to drink during the drought - but never bother the iris. They do eat my Asiatic lilly buds. Most hummingbird/butterfly garden flowers are deer safe so I have planted large areas of those. My penstimon is spreading all over as is my yellow columbine.