The radar still shows lots of activity in Northern Calif. Hope you're all safe! At least the reservores should be filling up.

As I said before I have been talking with folks around here who have had extreme losses in their iris beds and there are three factors involved in each case. 1. amendments added such as food, organic matter and bought soil, we have even considered that the companies have changed the formulas they use in their products. 2. unusually cold winter, perhaps stressing/weakening the irises and 3. unusually rainy/wet spring.

The irises lost locally were well tended and fed and most in new beds. The ones that seemed unaffected were in older beds and had not received as much care as the new beds. We keep an iris bed with nearly 200 irises at our state capitol. These beds which are weeded, fed, watered, etc. also had a LOT of this type of loss..... and of course it took out the new varieties which are the most expensive and harder to replace. One of our CAIS members, who lost over 400 varieties, decided to give up growing irises and had a really sad spring. Then she decided that perhaps she would replace some and then decided to slowly replace them all. It is heartbreaking. My loss was only an introduction to the problem and not extreme as yours was, Brad. The photos of your sick irises are very sad. I hope this last winter was an anomaly and we never see anything like it again. In the meantime I am still going about tugging on iris fans and watching for any unnatural coloring or browning. The moment I spot something, that iris is coming up, having surgery if needed, getting a Clorox bath and being replanted in another spot..... and getting dosed with Arlyns recommendation of Listerine. As a matter of fact a bit of Listerine before a problem may not be a bad idea.

Brad, the iris people around here said that rot was Botrytis. I don't know if that is really what it was, but that was the general consensus . Not sure what causes it or how to prevent it. It was widespread in this area last spring, but varied greatly in severity from garden to garden. I lost a few seedlings to it, but just one named plant, Ghio's Boy Genius. It did reduce my bloom though, especially on newly planted irises as it affected blooming sized rhizomes more severely than the smaller ones.

Sickening, Brad -- just sickening. Yes -- that the brown corky rhizomes that I was trying to describe. Newly planted Irises were the ones affected.

SW Nebraska & Iowa can have the same problem. A gentleman in Poland has a photo of this plants protected by river sand for the winter, so perhaps adding sand around each plant might help. A tough winter plus new type of soil might have caused the organism. Your loss was heartbreaking. We have had troubles with individual plants, but never a loss like yours.

In my situation last Winter/Spring, the rot was all over my yard in both new beds and older, non disturbed beds. The rot was in brand new newly planted rhizomes and established "clumpettes". It was in the good areas and the bad with significant differences. I just think it was wetter than normal and brutally cold for several intervals. I should expect more of this issue as my water table is very high and my soil does not drain very well (an understatement if I ever wrote one!). There is also a spring at the top of my alley that tends to keep the surrounding areas wet (my yard is a bit higher than the rest as the previous owner got rid of a pool and filled it in so my yard is about 10" higher than the rest- then I added my raised beds). I went to survey my yard yesterday and I had standing water inbetween my raised beds; so I have had too much moisture and the soil conditions don't allow it to move along very fast. I need a long dry spell.


* "clumpettes" - I do not let my irises form clumps as I have very little room and too many iris cultivars; so there is very little opportunity for clumps to form. Clumpettes to me are two/three year growth!

I had problems with mostly established clumps or "cumpettes" they seemed to be bed related, not whether they were new or old. Of course we may all be having issues with different problems. There may be lots of things going on here, not just one.

The ones I had problems with were all newly planted irises.

Hope all my fellow Californians are doing well during this storm.

looking at your pics, Brad, I would say "your" rot is Botrytis http://extension.psu.edu/pests...
One thing that I *believe* happens a lot, is "infection" by SEVERAL different disease organisms ....once the first disease weakens the plant, it would be very weakened, and other "baddies" would find it easy to join in ! I think this is why it's sometimes hard to pin down the culprit.
All of the spores and bacteria that cause these diseases are present almost everywhere in the soil, but only become a problem when conditions become right for them to really "do their thing". In my case, I ,at first, was blaming my rot problems on the fact that the "infected 'plants seemed to be those planted directly over areas where tree stumps had been ground out, the previous year. I felt either that was creating a "floor", 12"-16" deep, that was holding moisture and affecting good drainage, or, that the organism causing my "rot' might have started from the rotting of the stump residue. While I'm sure the stumps *might* have been one factor, I'm also pretty sure there were MANY factors involved....the conditions of weather, soil chemistry, and culture all happened to be "just right" for an organism to flourish.

Here's a couple more pictures to look at
Super Hero

Other Side of Heaven

Super Hero !

Wooops! Just another senior moment, I fixed it. You think that was a Freudian slip!!!

Super Hero is definitely on my want list. Every time I see it, I love it.

All is well here in Atwater. The winds are around 20 mph...so no problems there. They are now predicting 1" of rain today and 2" more tonight. That will be hard on the areas that have clay soil...and there are alot nearby. I am more fortunate in that we have sandy soil...so I'm hoping that rain will drain right on through and replenish the groundwater a little.

More beauties Tom....perfect for a stormy day!

Happy to hear things are good for you there Marilyn. I have nasty clay soil here, that's why I placed sand bags yesterday.

By the looks of the radar that system is just sitting there, and not moving on. We have had predictions of sunshine and temps in the mid to upper 30's all week but the temps have been in the low 20's and very overcast.

I cross posted with several of you...those photos are lovely to look at. Super Hero is on my wish list, and everytime I see it it seems to move up a notch...It's just a beautiful iris!

I just got Super Hero last year. I love it and am hoping to see a good show from it since I got several rhizomes of it; like three I think!

Good Choice Greg! I got Plot Line for free last year, and have been watching Rum and Coke which is also similar...but when I compare them I really like Superhero! I think it's the yellow blaze and that lovely yellow-gold beard!