Digging up overgrown siberian iris clumps is on my to do list to get done before winter sets in. I love the grassy foliage and purple blooms. They sure do get big quickly for me and they are a bear to dig up and divide.

I've decided to give up on them in the Cottage Garden - they just get too big for the space and I'm tired of trying to dig them up and thin them out every couple of years. I want to move them down to the pond and try to get them to grow and increase all along the edge. Plants have a mind of their own though, and with my luck, they will sulk where I want them to spread

I've also learned to cut back the leaves while still in the green in the fall. It gets to be really, really tedious cutting back the dead leaves in spring - they don't just pull out of the ground, you need to snip them, and in the spring the new shoots are coming up, making it even more tedious.

My best performer is a noid purple that was passed along at our Mid Atlantic swaps. I've purchased several named varieties over the years - minimal success so far with those. This year I've got the starts I purchased at the FSK Iris sale potted up instead of in the ground. I'll see if they grow and fill the pot and then think about planting them out.

I've got blue Sib. Iris and white Sib. Iris, both pass-along plants. As for cutting back foliage, I don't. I think the dead foliage provides some winter protection, sort of a "self mulch" and in the spring I just mulch over it to hide it. They really are a bear to divide; this time I used a sharp spade and a digging fork, but last time I used a handsaw (that did not work as well as I'd hoped!). One trick I learned is to twist off sections from the outside of the lifted clump instead of trying to cut apart the whole big blob. It's hard on the wrists, but it gets the job done.