Nature's culling process is ruthless. Sorry you lost the seedlings, Brad.
And thank you for posting the greenhouse photographs.

Sorry to hear that you've lost a bunch Brad and Arlyln. What little I've been able to mess in the gardens this spring, I have a few with crown mold as well. Of course when it's a newly planted one or a seedling that you haven't seen yet it's such a disappointment. The ones I have lost so far are just the mother rhizome, the increases seem OK. Just means another year without them blooming. Some are running on the second and third year of the same thing.

I get really frustrated with a plant if it continues to have just enough issues that I never get to see it bloom. I usually threaten it with being potted and if that does not do the trick I pot it and see if its behavior improves.

Sorry to hear about your Iris woes, Brad. You were deserving of a great spring after the last two. Hope things aren't as dire as they seem.

Ditto to you Arlyn. I hope this doesn't bode ill for the rest of us............

Sorry about your seedlings Brad. I hope those that survived more than make up for those you lost in beauty & form.

Lestv said:Sorry about your seedlings Brad. I hope those that survived more than make up for those you lost in beauty & form.

I couldn't have said it any better.

Muddymitts said:Sorry to hear about your Iris woes, Brad. You were deserving of a great spring after the last two. Hope things aren't as dire as they seem.

Ditto to you Arlyn. I hope this doesn't bode ill for the rest of us............

I've been working in the beds, the last two days, and have had a chance to really inspect things closely......................and it ain't good ! So far I see LOTS of "total goners (mostly those planted last year, but some established clumps, as well) and LOTS of cases where the "mother" is soft (so no bloom from her!)and the "daughters seemingly alright. This makes the third year of "troubles", and, the third time some of these cultivars have been planted....then died, so............I'm NOT replanting those cultivars ! I'll try "something else", instead. From what I see in my beds, and what I'm hearing from Brad, and Tom.....it's going to be another crappy year in the Midwest

Brad and Arlyn and others..! Sorry you've lost so many.

I'm sure that some of us would be able to send
some to you - if you give us a list.

list is needed!

I have not checked much in my yard as I have had little opportunity. The few I did look at and find rot issues with are re-bloomers that got zapped at the end of last year.

Worst part is they have 4 or 5 days of rain predicted for next week. If it could just dry out a bit it would help a lot.

At this moment we have brilliant sunshine....big storm due tomorrow.

Well after reading the troubles Brad and Arlyn are having, I found a little time to clean some of the beds around the house. Found at least half if not more have the mother rizomes fans rotted. Showing good increases on most of theses. So I guess I'm not going to have a good show this year. I've cleaned the back of the house earlier this week only found one so far with that rot. Which is good. Doesn't look like I lost any seedlings at this time.

Now I had a thought, what if I cutback the fans in late fall? Like mid to late October. Would the reduce the chances of rot in the spring? Because it always the rizomes that have large fans that rot. If there wasn't a lot of died leafs to hold in moisture, won't the chance be reduced? As of now I don't cut back unless I replant. Any good thoughts on reducing our rot issues?

janwax said:At this moment we have brilliant sunshine....big storm due tomorrow.

Interesting, it's been sprinkling here all day...

irisfirefighter said:Well after reading the troubles Brad and Arlyn are having, I found a little time to clean some of the beds around the house. Found at least half if not more have the mother rizomes fans rotted. Showing good increases on most of theses. So I guess I'm not going to have a good show this year. I've cleaned the back of the house earlier this week only found one so far with that rot. Which is good. Doesn't look like I lost any seedlings at this time.

Now I had a thought, what if I cutback the fans in late fall? Like mid to late October. Would the reduce the chances of rot in the spring? Because it always the rizomes that have large fans that rot. If there wasn't a lot of died leafs to hold in moisture, won't the chance be reduced? As of now I don't cut back unless I replant. Any good thoughts on reducing our rot issues?

Well, I always cut back the leaves in the fall.........and while the theory you have makes sense, .......it hasn't worked out that way for me

We cut back Siberian leaves, not bearded. We have no rot problems with them.

Hi Guys was hoping I was the only one with issues this year.. I spent all day in mine today going through them and while I had some loss there is still a lot that are going to be just fine with our weather last summer it was difficult to get them all moved in time we seemed to have the countries rain on top of us again through July and August and it's hard to get anything done in Mud it also delayed us getting a bed shaper in the field to make rows to plant in, so the majority of the seedlings were planted later than I would have liked because of it. In a normal year they would not have been moved past August but was worried if our house sold over winter I would have lost them all anyway so I had a 50/50 shot and for the most part a lot of them will make it. But there were some favorites that are goners

The majority of the commercial named stuff was planted in late July and 90% of it survived and is waking up so even though I probably won't see as many seedlings bloom this year as last I will have lot's of named varieties to enjoy and work with. It will take a while to get through everything here we warmed up so fast there already putting on new growth and I'm trying to get them cleaned, the rotted bulbs cut out so it doesn't spread and snapshot down so the weeds don't take over. With a forecast for rain everyday next week not sure how far I'll get with it. But as of today I think we will still have a good show in May.

Arlyn.. Sorry to hear about your losses again this year we really had a mild winter at least here anyway it was 50's in December, Fall was late and I think we averaged mostly 30's throughout the worst of it so not sure what keeps bringing on the botyrtis. I am sending some bulbs to ISU to have them verify that's what it is and see if they have something that would act as a preventative for it. I will pass along the info when it comes back.