The floral stalks on my various tall bearded iris varieties in Mesa, AZ only grow to about 12-15 inches tall. The result is that the flowers are all mixed up with the leaves. My favorite variety is supposed to be 38 inches tall. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can improve the heights of these flowering stalks? I do fertilize in the Spring, and again one month after the last blooms. Thanks for your time.

nick said:The floral stalks on my various tall bearded iris varieties in Mesa, AZ only grow to about 12-15 inches tall. The result is that the flowers are all mixed up with the leaves. My favorite variety is supposed to be 38 inches tall. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can improve the heights of these flowering stalks? I do fertilize in the Spring, and again one month after the last blooms. Thanks for your time.

What is the name of the TB's that you have an issue with and how long have you had them?

And what do you fert. with ?Here, short stalks are usually "weather related" i.e.too cool. I wouldn't think that's your problem, tho!...Arlyn

Over the years now and then I'll have one of these short stalks appear. They ususally don't re-occur in succeeding years though. Not sure what causes it. Have they had normal stalks in past years? I'm sure they will be ok next year. Sometims one will appear in a clump, and the rest will be fine. I had Ginger Ice send up a short stalk one fall, and I don't think it's a rebloomer, think it was just an anomaly, as it hasn't happened since. If you have a lot of them, I'd think there might some weather related issue maybe.

The iris I'm writing about is Coffee Trader. It's beautiful and should be about 38 inches in height. For the past two years I get flowers... on 15 inch stalks. We did have an unusual hard frost in February and a cold spell in March. Perhaps that was what shortened up the stalks, even though they had not started to appear yet. Maybe I need a Spring without any unusual wild temperature swings to get a really good display on these plants. I appreciate all of your advice on this topic. I've only been at this for 4 years and have a lot to learn. Unfortunately, you only get one blooming cycle per year to see if you're doing things right. It's tough to be patient.

All of my iris this year have been of normal height except for Tickling the Ivories. Although it bloomed normally last year, all 6 of them are blooming/have bloomed on approximately 6" stalks this year - not attractive at all. Our area also had an unusual cold snap so I am thinking that this Iris must be more sensitive. Hopefully, next year both your Coffee Trader and my Tickles will revert back to normal but I do understand your concern/frustration....