Name: Lori Morrow Enid, OK (Zone 6b) I want them all!
So I dug out the huge bed of NOIDs, cleaned everything up and tilled the area. Looks to me like I have done everything right up to this point. I had even planted a few new rhizomes in my pretty new area and then the rain came. We got 4 inches Monday and I have been pretty worried about my new babies so went out to check on them this evening and what did I find?
Teeny Tiny Itty Bitty little iris leaves popping up everywhere. I don't know if I should laugh or cry right now. They are so little when I dug around some of them look like they are coming straight from the old roots. Some of them are coming from tiny pieces of rhizomes that were left behind, but others I swear don't have so much as a nub.
I am going to leave them for now but I will have one heck of a mess later on!
Irises do bloom off the increases. I had some dwarfs thrown away in a metal bucket during the winter. Up they came in the spring. We gave them to a friend.
Slow! I haven't kept this part of the garden watered like I should. The "increase", that had the fan, has just now started to "push-out" the center leaf, and nothing is showing above ground, on any of the pieces. I need to make a point of watering that area a little more often....Arlyn
I see you're new, Geneva, Welcome! And you bring up a good point! If there were seeds there, the "stirring-up" of the soil, and then rain, could have germinated them. Lori may have a future award winner growing in there !....Arlyn
I had something similar happen just outside of my compost bin. I don't typically compost iris foliage because of borers but something must have gotten back there because now I have the healthiest and most robust clump of iris right next to the bin! I just left it as a happy accident and now it has 5 or 6 seed pods on it. I don't recall ever having a seed pod on a bearded iris before.
Wow, Lori! That's pretty awesome, truly! Maybe you will have some really amazing color combinations there!! Or as Geneva and Arlyn pointed out- you could have the most breath-taking new hybrids! That is kind of making me think twice about some of the iris beds I dug this year. I know I have rhizomes sprouting in the new bed out in the garden... kinda wondering if I left anyone behind by the birdbath.
