For some reason my white/purple edged iris are blossoming on extremely short stems, like 2". You can barely see them in the leaves. Any ideas as to why?

Two possibilities I can think of are "exposure" to herbicide( round up, even the fumes affect the plant), and do a soil test, check for ph, and more importantly N-K-P. Outside of that, maybe weather related? Some of mine(rebloomers) throw very short stalks in the fall, after a few "freezing" nights....Arlyn

We don't use herbicides, just natural.

I was checking other places and they suggest the weather as well. What am I looking for in ph and N-P-K?

Pretty sure it's not excessive N because the leaves on all look healthy but not on steroids. GA soil is on the acid side so I'm pretty sure that part's okay. But I'll check. Thanks!

Bearded like a neutral ph, so if your too acid ,you may have to use some lime.....Arlyn

Aha, conflicting info. Thanks!

N--small amount of nitrogen

sounds mostly like a weather event. This may become evident if any nearby plants that bloom later in the season do not have any issues.

Well, I have a 50ft. row of iris so I will get the chance to see if it is the weather when the others blossom. Right now I just have a few in blossom.

Thanks for all the responses.

Did you ever find more information on the problem with your iris? I have had 6 or 7 cultivars bloom this year so far with another 4 or 5 heavy in bud and out of that batch all but one have bloomed normally. Tickle the Ivories, however, are all blooming on stunted, 6" stalks (they bloomed normally last year). Like you, we don't use any chemicals and all of the bearded iris are grown under identical conditions and my problem, at least, seems to be contained to just that 1 cultivar. Any insight or info that you have gathered would be most appreciated!

Only reason that seems likely was the weather, but if you're having the problem with just one cultivar, hmm, unless that one is just more sensitive. I have an old fashioned purple/brownish one that blossomed normal but it is on the south side of the house, right next to the steps and even a geranium survived this winter so I'm thinking it's a micro climate area. That would still be reasonable to think it's the weather here.

So sorry I can't be of more help...

I'm not sure if this is what I have, but it looks like this:
Charleston

Thank you for the update! We did have 2-3 weeks of unusually cold weather (mid to low 20's at night) here approximately 8 weeks ago so maybe Tickle the Ivories is more sensitive (all 3 Tickles have this issue even though they are 40-50' apart from one another). It's just strange to see these stubby stalks - I did not even realize they were blooming until I was standing over them.

Thank you for your help. BTW, that iris (Charleston) is beautiful!

I happened to notice when I was out today that the stems are getting taller! So it must be the cold weather!

Thanks, I'm not even sure where I got that one, but I love it! Someone gave me an orange iris, I don't know the name, just that it's bright orange so I'm very anxious for it to bloom! I have a lot of the old fashioned ones from my mother and a beautiful pink, Beverly Sills. That's really the only one I know the name of!

Ahhh, Tickle the Ivories is very pretty also!

Tickle is lovely when it is blooming normally but.. with short stalks...not so much I am happy to hear that yours are getting taller - that gives me hope! Again, thank you so much for the update - I truly appreciate it!

No problem! I like the quick response to most questions posed on this site! Great bunch of people!

Here's what the iris are looking like now. A little taller, but still not as tall as usual.

The color pattern is called 'plicata'. There are quite a few different patterns in that series.

Those new buds are really looking nice - I am so happy for you that they are trying to recover! The tickles here are still blooming near the ground but, hopefully, next year they will return to their normal height. I have a couple more cultivars that are now setting buds and they all look fine (nice and tall) so I am happy that my problem seems to be limited to just one cultivar.

Oh yeah, as I was taking the picture I noticed the brown spots on the leaves. something's tunneling in leaves!