Here is the Tall bearded Iris garden I made from all the relocated iris that I moved. Now where did they come from and why did I move them?


They moved out of this square raised bed I call Tower Square and used to be an iris garden. I decided to make this a veggie bed next spring so needed to move everything out.

I do know the iris are really much too crowded in the new area but don't care. They needed to move and I only had so much room so they are crammed in. Truely I love TB when they bloom but think that the plants themselves are ugly. This is the perfect place for them along the driveway where I can pay much attention to them in bloom and ignore them the rest of the time.

Rita, What did you have to move out to make room for the iris?? I thought that area along your driveway looked pretty full! It will be beautiful at bloom time!

It now has three rows of iris. It used to have two rows of daylilies along there. I have long thought this area was perfect for a TB iris garden but it did look nice with the daylilies. Still, there are plenty of daylilies further along the driveway.

Those dayliles are all still here, I just had to get really creative about placement for them and finding spots. But I moved all the daylilies before the iris relocation (I had too of course). So there REALLY was a lot of shuffling things around. I am so glad it is done!!!!

Wow, Rita. That sounds like a lot of work! Did you divide all the daylilies when you moved them or did you move the clumps?
You could put zinnia seeds in with the iris so you have some summer color without needing much water. Or salvia--they kind of like it dry. Or rose moss (portulaca) as a ground cover so water doesn't splash on the iris fans?
No matter what, it's going to look beautiful next spring!

No room for anything between those iris. They are really close together.

I did move the daylilies as they were. Actually there were only two that where big enough clumps that they could have been divided. But I left them as they were as I really only wanted to get them moved!

That's pretty much the way my irises are planted too, Rita. And I have a friend who puts a string way down low around her clumps so she can tell where one ends and another begins for later reference -- works pretty well for her. Mine don't clump so easily so I don't seem to have a problem.

I think they will look really great in bloom. Honestly, I was surprised when moving them that rarely was one clumped up that could have been divided. Almost all had nothing to divide. So I am not very worried about them getting too large anytime soon. So I didn't even worry about which rhizome had bloomed thus year. I took them in the clump just as it is growing and simply moved the entire thing.

I watered them and then I mulched the area in back of that last row and in front of the lilies with straw. I guess I will just put some Preen on them to try and keep down the weeds.

Rita I enjoyed your pictures from this spring and Ill be looking forward to seeing the new bed in bloom.

Thanks!

I gave it a good soaking and then put Preen down. Hopefully that will keep lots of weeds away. That's it on those iris. Now we just let them settle into their new home. Hopefully I will still get a decent amount of bloom on them next year.