Rita, I am soooooooo proud of you! And I know you won't regret taking the time to do it.

Oh Betty, If you saw it you would either roll on the floor laughing or maybe just cringe It really can hardly even be called a chart and here you do such works of art for your charts. But it is just in case I need it and gladly no one else is going to have to look at it

I think you might be amazed at how much you'll look at it in the future -- It's perfect for decision-making and planning what you want to move, etc. And you can do it at night in front of the TV instead of spending time trying to figure it all out while you're out in the yard. You may even end up doing all of them at some point...

I even put the registered plant height along with each name so I can try to place by height too.

I plan what I want to move during bloom season and then do it after bloom season. I started that way with my daylilies and it works as well for my iris. I use a color system. I use orange surveyers tape which I tie arund the stalk of anything to be shovel prunned and another color on anything I might want to move. I can't make any moving or shovel prunning decisions until I see the blooms in front of me and of course I don't decide on the first bloom but give them a chance. During bloom it is easy for me to see where side by side ones would look better if I could move them or if two close too each other are too similar. I did want to move some this season for that reason but just never got too it. Then if I leave it too long I can't because I have forgotten the exact colors of those iris I want to move. I seem to be able to remember the daylilies better than I do the iris

Chart? Good for you Rita.

The iris bed today-



I haven't weeded again since this thread was posted but I think many of the iris in that big back bed have really taken off and look really great. Trouble is it seems to be hit and miss with some looking super to me while some others struggle on and still look tiny.

These things depend on the cultivar & sometimes position in the bed.

Well, at least most of them do look good to me and growing well. I expect a lot from my iris. I expect that they will take off and grow and not need to be overly fussed over. Iris should be easy.

The irises I spoke of in some of the above postings did not turn out well. In the clump of 4, one was rotted and was discarded. The 3 remaining rhizomes were soaked in soap and bleach for probably 4 hours and laid on paper to dry. I cut the fans to about 3 inches and planted 2. One had a funny discoloration in the top of the fan where it was cut. It was discarded. The 2 planted rhizomes both put up a new increase then promptly died. I pulled the remaining leaf material off and it was rotted at the bottom. Both were pulled and discarded. The point to be made is that unless the damaged rhizome is expensive or a scarce type, I still say toss it. I do not believe bleaching disinfects the internal rhizome material and it is likely to remain infected.



Picture of the rhizomes after bleaching. No indication of problems.

Your iris look good. I must be the only person here that does nothing if they rot. I have an attidude that if they aren't strong and do well on their own then they don't need to be here. I guess it helps that none of my rotters were any really expensive ones.

I read somewhere that you're supposed to soak rhizomes in a bleach solution for 15 min. and then rinse them off and dry them. Could it be the long soak in bleach hurt them? But I do agree that unless it's valuable or the infection is pretty minor it's best to get rid of them. So far I've had four of my newbies get a soft rot infection -- all from the middle of the fan above the rhizome. When I parted the leaves I could see the middle leaf rotting clear down. And in all four cases I just cut the fan totally off down to the rhizome and put the potted rhizome in direct sunlight for a day, and now each of them has increases that are a few inches high. And I have to admit that I've been able to save more than I've lost, but that's probably because it's hot and dry out here and the sunlight approach works pretty well for me. And if that doesn't work, next I try SoftSoap and then more sunlight drying. And if that doesn't work it's outa here!

What a shame. We have had no rot on incoming rhizomes, although some in the ground have had it, but then it is our garden's fault.

I lost Out to Lunch this year due to rot. It had bloomed beautifuly this year, even though it was new last year. I haven't been able to find another source for it. Very sad.

Good tips on iris here. My newbies are sprouting leaves,a refreshing sign for spring to come.
Its the 8 months in between tha are hard.

I had some rot this year, mostly fue to an extremely wet & cold spring, and some overcrowding. But summer, was hot and dry. I ended up making an iris only bed, and transplanting all of my iris to it. In doing so, I severaly cut and tossed anything that seemed even remotely soft, mushy, smelly, etc. I then left everything to air dry in the hot sun for a dew days. Now those poor massive 1 year old clumps are tiny = enough so, that I wonder what kind of bloom season I will have next spring.

On my charts, I thought of this late during my daylily season, but next year, I am going to make copies of my charts, I will have everything numbered, but not necessarily taking up space with the names. I will have a place for the date, then as I go outside on my daily wanderings, I will make notes, and perhaps using a colored pencil, and mark which ones are blooming each day - along with scape heights, etc. The little bit I did this with my daylilies it worked really well. I had all the daylily beds condensed onto one sheet. So instead of me making notes (and losing them) I just kept it all in a 3 ring binder and all my information - along with the date, is right at my fingertips. Wish I had thought of this earlier in the season! But next year I will be prepared! ~Jan

Glad that you have the energy for it. I mainly keep track of my seedlings, but this years rain & sore shoulders has made the grases grow. Worrying about that now. We have a sandy subsoil so there is usually not much rot.

Jan, I am not that organised either. I used to keep far more notes on my daylilies but these days I don't do much.

I still had one Iris garden to redo the labels which were fading and that was in the Tower Square Garden. So I did that today and then after I was finished I did a map of those iris so even if they fade I can go see what they are. The maps really are a good backup to have. Mine really aren't much, just very crude drawings but all the names are recorded so I am happy.

With John's help we finished weeding a bed of seedlings. My seedlings in the red amoena (SDB) experiment seem to be growing quite well. Yipee! Now if it doesn't rain during their entire bloom time like it did this year, I can get something done.

Beautiful seedlings, Lucy! Really love that first one!