My Superstition order has been planted for 12 days. As I have said before I put a milk basket over them for a little shade. This morning I have been lifting the baskets to check for weeds and removing any brown outer leaf that pulls off easily. They look great, a nice green color and some are showing a little growth. I'll leave them on until my next order comes. I've been watering about every 5 days.

Hi,! Good idea with the milk crates! I put up an old chunk of camo netting on the west side of mine to cut the afternoon sun. Been soaking the ground every other day. No sign of any new growth, and the "oldest" have been in for 4 weeks! I'm getting nervous! They look good, considering, still green, anyway...Arlyn

If they are green they are probably OK. I can also tell as I remove a browning outer leaf that the plant is rooting in as I hold the fan with the other hand and they feel firm. From discussions here I sometimes think I over water so am doing it less frequently..

We've had 7 days over 100deg. so far this month,and Tues.& Wed. are suposed to hit it ,also . Only 14 in. of moisture for the year(about 9in. short of av. ) There is NO way I can over water THIS year!! As far as rooting, everthing I've planted came with a good root system of old roots, and I left that on to hold the plant,as our soil is very,very sandy....Arlyn

I've been watering mine every two or three days -- and tonight, I found one rhizome rotted out. Too much water. So I'm gonna cut back watering, even thought our temps are in the 90-100* range (and have been for a month), and we're way short on rainfall and are in a drought. I don't think Irises need the amount of water that we think they need.

They certainly don't need it. We have watered our newies with the watering can & that is all.
Plants seem smaller this year but the ones which were in the garden are quite green, even though it has been dry.

I pot mine up using a potting mixture that has no fertilizer in it, and after an initial two back-to-back waterings I only water them about once a week, and only late in the afternoon. I'm terrified of bacterial soft rot with our really hot summers, and I've found they survive just fine with minimal watering. Then in September, after they've rooted in the pots, I start putting them in the ground and that works much better for me.

This is not a profound observation but I think each of us need to be observant gardeners and try to understand and observe what works best for us in our own garden. It may differ greatly. I love to water and almost never lose anything to soft rot. I am trying to water less this year. Our secondary water system which I can use Tues, Thurs, and Sat costs $22 a month what ever I use. I try not to be a water pig but am keeping my garden green. If we have a dry winter this year we may be limited next summer and I will need to choose what is most important.

I have watered my new plants every day during that week of 100 degree weather. Now not so often. The established plants I have watered about every other week during the dry spell. As I sit here typing, a storm has just passed. It was a pretty heavy rain, not sure how much, but for once I won't have to be watering today! We've had some rain each week for the last three. It's not soon enough to help the farmers corn crop I fear, but maybe there will be a 3rd crop of hay, and the pastures might come back some for fall grazing if this keeps up. I remember the first year that I had irises. I think I watered every other day or so. I have no idea why I didn't kill them all, other then I have very sandy soil here, and that must have saved them.

Tom would be great if your rain passes our way we have had 3.5 in of rain since the beginning of May the paper says it is the dryest on record since the turn of the century and I dont know how many days above 100 we have had I lost track, but yesterday was a new record of 106 and the next too will be at least 100 just a horrible time to try to grow anything most of the trees that have been established for years are turning colors and dropping leaves the ground is just rock solid. I too have sprinklers running for hours everyday on anything close to my house the newer plants are starting to take hold and root but certaintly not thriving if we could get a break from the extreme heat I would slow it down but at this pace nothing will grow without water the ground just dries out to fast.

I'd send you some if I knew how, lol. If you ask the conspiracy theory nut cases, they say the government controls the weather now. We must have gotten about an inch and a half today. Plus it was nice and cloudy most of the day, so it didn't dry off right away. I can actually see some green coming back to the lawn.

Well here's an interesting observation -- and mostly in response to Betty's post above -- it occurred to me today that I have Irises that I have dug up and left lying out on top of the ground where I intend to plant them, and they're just fine. The leaves are green, the roots are only a little dried out -- and if I planted them tomorrow, I know they'd take root and be fine. But I have Irises that have been planted for a month that don't look as good as the ones lying on top of the ground. The only difference is water. The planted ones have been blessed with my watering endeavors -- the ones on top of the ground only get a grazing of water when the hose passes over them. And these are all in the same area with each other, so all other elements are identical.

Conclusion -- I need to water less. I need to grit my teeth and ignore those rhizomes that are planted and whose leaves are dried up in this intense heat, and have confidence that they'll be fine. Or at least, hope for the best.

Sometimes this is hard.

Hi,! Looks like the iris have broken "summer dormancy"! New leaf growth on almost all of our estalished plants, and the first of the new ones are just showing new leaf tips popping up! The "second batch" of new plants show nothing yet, but they were small, and pretty rough looking! The Cicada Killers have finaly succumbed to my efforts toeliminate them, so I'm not constantly brushing piles of sand from on top the rhisomes! Is anybody else having trouble wit them? I think it's the super dry weather thats making them so bad this year....Arlyn

The iris I have in full all day sun are just sitting there, not showing much increase or growth. The beds that have a part of the day in the shade are doing much better. They have nice growth and showing more increases. Although everything looks better since we have had a couple of rains. I put an add on craig's list and have been selling iris like mad at $2 each. I tried getting 3 last year, and ended up with a lot of extras that I couldn't find homes for. I'm hoping that today will be cool enough so I can go out and work. It's been so hot that just getting everything watered was enough work.

So far I haven't seen any keel over from the crazy weather we have here. I did note that a couple have babies coming on the rhizomes so that is a good sign.

I'm not seeing the cut fans grow any new leaves. Bad sign? I'm probably being impatient.

Dont panic yet.Julia
My last conversation with Polly ,she said liik for "increases" new growth later more like September.

Jo Ann: Thanks for the advice.
Did you get the thunderstorm last night? Wow, what a lightning show but it did gives us some much needed rain here. Hopefully
the rain continues today.

I slept thru the storm. Todays rain is welcome.

Check out this crazy thing! I received my order from Joe Ghio 3-4 weeks ago and this was a bonus/gift plant, and about a week ago I suddenly noticed this stalk with buds coming up. I can't imagine it will actually bloom, and if it does it will probably be deformed, but I couldn't believe it when I saw it!

This is Barry Blyth's RAISE THE CURTAIN, and it's not listed as a rebloomer but it is an Australian iris and I can only think that it's still on Australia time (their seasons are exactly the opposite of ours). Its bloom time is listed as "WE". Does anyone know what that means -- "Way Early"? Oops no -- I just realized that's not a "W" but a "V V" run together!



And here is its listing in the AIS Iris Encyclopedia:

http://wiki.irises.org/bin/vie...

Sure is a bonus then.