Those of you who've been following my posts know I had a terrible borer infestation last year, but this iris that rotted was not involved. It was newly planted in the garden last year, so it had no borer damage from last year's mess.

It was in a sunny, well drained location. It has not flooded. The season has not been particularly wet. It had increased, but slowly - one of the ones that weren't going to bloom this year. I had no reason to think anything was amiss with it until today I saw a fan lying on the ground.

When I grabbed it, it came right off - complete mush where the fan emerged from the rhizome. Then I felt the rhizome, and it too was soft. Everything looked normal from the outside. I would not have noticed anything if the fan hadn't fallen over - leaves green, rhizome normal color.

I pulled the whole thing out of the ground and tore it into pieces searching for a borer - nothing I could see.

Has anyone had this happen in their garden? This by the way, is why I never buy current year intros. It is bad enough to lose the iris like that, but it would be even worse if the flower cost near my weekly expenditure at the grocery store.

Lyn ~ I hope someone has an answer for you, as I do not. Since I have heavy clay soil, I can have problems if we get lots of late rain.
So far we have been lucky this year.

Good luck! How many irises were affected?

Lyn: it's rare but I have got diseased Irises from vendors before and they go to mush like that. And I think mine was a disease because it affected a few other plants close by. It seems to be gone now though.
Also in the Fall when I am cleaning off old leaves from the Rhizome, I just very gently pull. If Something doesn't come off, I either leave it and try to see later if it'll come off more easily or I cut it a short distance from the Rhizome because I found out if I yank them really hard sometimes it introduces rot.
Finally injury's from dogs digging by the Rhizome has caused rot. Most times no, but some just can't take it.
And I know your situation might be none of these but they are just my rot experiences.

As far as I know, just the one. But I'm going to have to check more closely. I recently ordered a fungicide from an organic gardening place so I'm going to douse the whole bed where it was.

Elsa @GreenIris mentioned having received a disease from a vendor before. This is intriguing because this iris was bought from a vendor I hadn't used before

evelyninthegarden said: Lyn ~ I hope someone has an answer for you, as I do not. Since I have heavy clay soil, I can have problems if we get lots of late rain.
So far we have been lucky this year.

Good luck! How many irises were affected?

The bacteria that causes rot is in the soil. Sometimes a rhizome has a tiny cut or injury that allows it to get in and cause rot. Those can be caused by man or insect or other animals. There's always moisture in the rhizome whether we have a lot of rain or not. It's really discouraging when a newly planted one gets affected. If there are small increases on it, it still can be rescued.

Lyn,Yes I had that problem last year.The only way I noticed were fans lying on the ground.It happened to 6 new iris all in the same area,3 new intro's.The rhizomes mushy.
I cleaned up a few that had nubs attached.2 grew small new iris.
I think it was a wetter than usual summer and fall last year.
No borers,just mushy rot in one area .I have no explanation.
I had not had a rot problem since my first year of iris 30+ years ago.
I might add that there was only a tiny area of the rhizome that I was able to save with a few nubs.Like half a thumbnail.

We've had so much rain this year that this has happens to not only my iris but almost all my alliums and garlic, never happened any other year but everything this year just got so terribly wet and turned to start rot. My alliums got hit the hardest. All foliage dead and slid right off the bulb. Horrible.