crowrita1 said:last night, my neighbor......the "Round Up Rascal".....left two, large plastic tarps lay in his back yard. Strong stormy winds,from the west blew them OUT of his yard, and into the large Historic bed, in MY yard.........about 75-100 broken off stalks is the result !I can't decide whether to shoot him....or myself . Rita and I stuck them in some pails of water, and I suppose that the ones 'showing color' may open, so we will at least see some of them . I took some pictures of the mess, but I really don't feel up to seeing it again....so I ash canned them.

That's horrible. I would actually cry. So sorry to hear that.

Oh no Arlyn! After all rot issues you're having, this is the last you need.

I hope you showed him the damages and gave him a piece of your mind.

Oh Arlyn, that's horrible, I'm so sorry to hear that! I think you definitely need to let him know how much damage his tarp caused. I like Lucy's idea. And the fence is a good idea too. What a huge disappointment...especially on top of all your rot issues !

So sorry!
I would definitely have a talk with the neighbor.

That tarp needs to be confiscated and maybe even cut up because the wind took it and it must have caught onto things that ripped it into shreds.

Arlyn, that is the equivalent of being robbed. Not only have you lost blooms that you feed and wait for a year to see but the damage to irises already stressed could even cause more losses. You wait so Long and endure what Mother Nature dishes out, you count bloom stalks in anticipation of seeing the rewards and then something totally uncalled for robs you. Sad.

It's a pittance compared to Arlyn's issues -- but Crackling Caldera is a goner.

Ain't this been one, H*** of a year, MaryAnn ?! From what I'm hearing on the three forums, there's drought losses on the west coast, and from the Rockies, east across the plains states, through the mid west, and east , almost to the coast, it's been rot issues ,of one sort or another.
It makes me wonder what's next

Honestly, Arlyn. Another thing I've been seeing -- I have bloom stalks, with blooms at the top, rot right in the center of the stem. I have stems just keel over so that the buds are facing downward -- with no evident damage to the stalk. I have what appears to be RoundUp damage to all the blooms of one of the rhizomes, in clumps that are otherwise fine. In all the years that I've had Irises -- I RoundUp damaged ONE Iris. There is no way that I could have damaged forty or fifty -- I'm too careful -- so what's THAT about?????

I have a good idea Arlyn. Let's blame your neighbor. We'll all get together and beat the s**t out of him. Won't change anything -- but we'll feel better!!! And we'll maybe solve one of YOUR problems!!!

I REALLY like your solution, Mary Ann !!! REALLY !! I haven't had any stems rot in the middle, but I HAVE had a lot of "rubber" stems, and, of course, the 'obvious" damage from the round up. My rot issues have been , lately, the bacterial soft rot (the smelly stuff) and have been the ones that had lost the 'mother" to the botrytis.....now the little increases,(that I THOUGHT might survive) are turning into a stinky sludge . I was wondering where I would find room to plant the new ones....now I can just "fill in the blanks"!

Arlyn, I'm just sick to hear of this!! OMG!! I'd have to shoot them with buckshot. ( I had an acquaintance once who used to through balloons of round up in peoples yards if their "kids" picked her flowers.) Neighbors are sometimes like relatives: you can't pick them very often. I guess I'm anti social or hard to get along with, When the "city" started encroaching on my meager 2 acres about 8 years ago, I LEFT and moved to 35 acres. I wish you could do the same.

We're getting 4 inches of snow starting tonight. I have no idea what will happen to my iris blooms. It looks like I have a good 70% bloom this year and lots of the historics I got from Mike 3 years ago are budded. I can only wait and see what happens. I sure don't have enough knee socks for them all.

Lots of mud everywhere and I had to ditch a couple of iris beds to get the standing water out. So far the stocks look healthly.

So sorry Arlyn. Some people just have no common sense.

Sorry to hear about the snow ,Susan ! What are the temps supposed to be ? If you can ,maybe, stake, or somehow support the "spindly" ones, so they don't "go down",they may be OK !It seems to take 'sustained" ( 12-16 hours) temps in the 28 degree, or below range to really hurt the buds, although opened flowers will show some "frost bite"......
Yeah, this guy is a real piece of work ! He's a NICE guy...polite, and 'well mannered"....but dumb as a box or rocks! I've known his wife since she was in diapers (she was in my youngest daughters class), and she's a sharp girl , good job, and ,in fact, is the main "bread winner", and every time he has one of his "brain farts" she goes to whichever neighbor is involved, and apologizes , often with tears in her eyes......I feel bad for her!
Today, after I discovered the damage, I took his tarps "back" to him, and ,without being TOO much of an ass, told him just where he screwed up, and how MUCH he screwed up......(and a few OTHER things , as well !)......but about 3 hours later, (his wife was gone at the time) I looked over at his place, and he had his riding mower out, cutting the grass.....with his "just turned" two year old daughter sitting on the hood!....driving along, beer in one hand, and steering wheel in the other ! He's a moron ! Before I could get over to stop him, Rita noticed what was happening, ran (as fast as a fat woman CAN run !) over, and grabbed Olivia off the hood, Gave Aaron an "ear full" , and generally 'read his pedigree' ! She "offered" to watch the kid till "mom" got home, and did ! Then she gave Erin (yeah, I know Erin and Aaron !)an earful !

Susan, I had an ice storm right before bloom time down here. Most of the plants survived okay, but I had some bloomstalks that got wrinkly and hard, and some "interesting" blooms. Lots of chimera with a missing standard or fall, one that bloomed with one standard & one fall & one standard/fall that was a mixture of both!! In many cases it wasn't even the first buds to open that had the "frost" defects. I am just very glad it didn't kill a single one.

It has been a weird year for everyone it seems. I had to stake several for the first time this year. I had a lot of "swan necks", several that didn't make stems long enough to make it out of the center of the clump, a little middle of the stem rot, a lot of long thin stems and Roundup damage where Roundup had never been sprayed. Then of course there was the damage from the neighbor spraying his lawn with whatever weed killer mix he used one extremely still night very close to the fence...wilted a bunch of them and they didn't bloom at all.

I am glad that the little girl was rescued by Rita. Bravo! It would have been bad if something horrible had happened. My little cousin was killed by a tractor when he was about 3. & they were supposedly watching out for him.

Wow, I just read the thing about the little girl Arlyn. My ex husband managed to run over his daughters foot with the lawn mower when she was 2. I would assume he was doing about the same thing, cut off all but her big toe she is 21 now and just had another reconstructive surgery recently. I am so glad I divorced him before we had children...I would have killed him for sure.
Thank goodness Rita is not the shy bashful type! Yippee for Rita!!! (don't make fun of fat girls running either, I have to do it once in awhile...it ain't pretty but sometimes you have to!)

Arlyn, sounds like the guy is a few French Fries short of a Happy Meal!

As I said......, He's a moron! Erin's (the wife) father came over late yesterday (after supper) and apologized for his son-in laws "stupidity" (his word !) and thanked Rita and I for intervening in what *could* have been a serious accident!

I don't even like to think of what a disaster that could have been.....................