I must add Doug Kanarowski to my list of favored hybridizers. He had several new
introductions, especially Royal Jammies, that have gone on my Want list!

On the subject of the environment - it's been hot and dry here for a long time. My garden is starting to
suffer - but I manage to keep all of my irises alive - one or two cupfuls at a time!

Attagirl!!!!

A few years ago we had a drought and watering restrictions, and I had a Jacuzzi tub at the time that I used about once a week for back pain. I would use the water afterwords for my plants. Once I even siphoned it with a hose through the window to water the garden a bit. Drought surely makes us appreciate how precious a resource water is.

This year it seems Kentucky got everybody's water for the year!

I'm finding it (of course) much easier to manage the Iris rhizomes I have planted in pots -
the ones in the ground were the one's that were more difficult to manage, as a result, I had
a lot of losses. It's just so much easier watering Rhizomes when they are in a pot.

I always plant mine in the ground but have not had time to prepare a new bed. What size pot do your grow iris in? What type of soil? THKs

I use a 1 gal "Trade" pot for my irises. This is roughly a 6.8" diameter pot and it is 6" tall. I have used old Mums pots for irises that I am nursing along.

I use 4" pots for my Iris rhizomes. Yes, they will eventually be transplanted into the garden in September.

I don't have time to make two jobs out of one -- mine go right in the garden.

Gallon pots for me too. And for the potting media I use about a 50\50 mix of commercial potting soil and fine textured mulch.

I pot for more than one reason.

1. I pot to sell.
2. I pot to nurse back to health.
3. I pot to delay planting in ground because of bed prep issues (delaying tactic-I rather plant straight to the garden and avoid #3)

I use the same pots as "Stoney Creek Iris" (we like to match-yes I buy from her "vendor" )

Misawa77 said:I pot for more than one reason.

1. I pot to sell.
2. I pot to nurse back to health.
3. I pot to delay planting in ground because of bed prep issues (delaying tactic-I rather plant straight to the garden and avoid #3)

I use the same pots as "Stoney Creek Iris" (we like to match-yes I buy from her "vendor" )

I pot for the same reasons at Greg except to sell. ( I just don't sell mine) I had to pot all my recent orders because my husband just decided to bring a bulldozer home from work and do some work to our creek and in my iris field so I had to dig some up and put them in pots also.
I will say for watering purposes it's much easier but the knowing I am going to have to plant everything all over again is a bummer. I much prefer the one and done method!

My reasons for potting are the same as Greg and Jen's. I pot to delay because my beds are not prepared and ready for the iris rhizomes. I, of course agree that I would prefer to direct plant the rhizomes, but I decided to plant a lot of Annuals for the Summer (big mistake!) and I'm now slowly cutting out the annuals from the two gardens I have that will house the Iris.
Next year I will not be having any 'mixed' beds. They will strictly be Iris beds.

I pot some to nurse them back to health, or the rhizomes are too small to be planted on their own. The main reason is to wait until our weather cools down and then plant them in the ground in late September-early October. When I plant them, I plant them like a plant and try not to disturb the new roots.

That's what happened to me this year ---- some of the people who sent me rhizomes sent me very small rhizomes, and I had no choice but to pot them up. You should see them now ! Wow. They have done extremely well and are quite large !

I have 3 little 4" pots with 2 sets of sick rhizomes and one perfect Japanese iris seedling. Everything else goes in the ground.

It is possible as things get more crowded and I get a vehicle back, I could pot some up for the flea market. I have plenty of saved pots.

Moving forward my plan is to get a couple of nursery beds ready for newbies. They will be irises only, and new varieties will grow there until they can be divided. At that point divided clumps will go into the mixed garden, where I can install an instant clump of 5 or 6 rhizomes. These will gradually replace some old historics and noids that I have multiple clumps of throughout the gardens. I'm thinking this will decrease my need for potting, but those that need extra TLC will still be potted, and if its terribly hot and dry I may still pot them too.