Thanks Mary Ann, I will keep an eye out for it now that I can have a visual. I am sorry that you and others have this terrible thing happening.

I am back home and I now have some time to work on the browning iris leaves. Mine are brown and coming loose at the base. I think I will just cut them back to about 6 or 8 inches. Will that be helpful? If they bloomed should I lift them and cut the increases off now and replant?

BGM - That's what I do every year. I dig up every clump, clean it, remove outer fans to get light and air to the rhizome and I check the rhizome for any soft spots. I cut any soft spots out and douse the rhizome with comet/bleach. Sounds like a lot of work and it is. But it is so much easier on my body than bending over and doing this while they are in the ground. I take as much dirt with the llifting as I can and the plants don't seem to mind it. I also cut off any browning on the fan tips.

With all the rain we had this month, I've only completed 36 out of 150 or so, but I actually like the workout. And Barbara gets a chance to help when the clump is on the work table. When they get put back in the ground they look great.

Blessings

John, so you are doing this now? Or is it to early, I thought you dug them in July? Thanks!

Yepper. I've been doing this for a few years now and the Iris don't seem to mind. Now when I say I take a lot of dirt, what I do is take a spade and dig about one square foot of dirt around the Iris and about six inches down and bring it up in one solid chunk. Like I said, it's a tad heavy but doable.

Blessings

Oh, and another reason I do it this early is I suddenly realize I have no room for all the newbies I ordered in the Winter. The whole process takes about a month, just in time for many boxes to arrive on my doorstep.

Blessings

Making room for more beauties! Thanks

I have too many irises to dig them up for a tidy up. I have tons of other garden chores to do also. I have to dig and move the ones that are overcrowded or that must be moved. Also, healthy clumps are very large and it would mean breaking them up.

I think it may be the wet conditions that everyone is experiencing. Despite the cloud cover for the past few weeks and the drippy, foggy conditions my garden is very dry and I have had to water it each week. I have seen no rot because there is not enough water to sustain the bacteria that causes it IMHO. Another storm passed within miles of me yesterday but I will turn the hoses on today. I am not complaining. I don't want the heartache of losing irises. I am sad for all who are dealing with this loss.

Yah -- I'm the same as you Bonnie -- too many Irises to dig them all up for cleaning. I admire your work ethic, John -- and suspect that you eliminate a lot of problems doing things that way. Kudos to you for that!!

I work my way through the beds -- removing bloom stalks, pulling dead leaves, sometimes trimming the discolored ones, doing a bit of hand-weeding (this year, in Iris Lane there will be MAJOR weeding), and sprinkling Preen. This year I will be digging overgrown clumps as I go along, because I need to transplant the survivors from the Nursery beds. This is also the time of year that I sprinkle lime on the beds with moss growing. This process usually takes me about a month, as well -- this year it will take a lot longer because I have so few days that I can be at home that I'm not on one mowing machine or the other.

Muddymitts said:-- this year it will take a lot longer because I have so few days that I can be at home that I'm not on one mowing machine or the other.

On those days, when you are free, and you are not mowing....... in my case it will be raining.

Yah -- that too, Bonnie. We're having a sunny heat-wave right now (three days in a row without rain ). But by the weeks end, we are supposed to be back to heavy rains and cold temps. The weather this year is unbelievable. And I think it's responsible for the rot losses. That's not going to prevent me from taking extra care with preparing rhizomes for transplanting..........

A friend of mine has a very long iris bed with a wide walk down the middle. Last summer he dug the entire south half, cleaned the rhizomes and replanted only five of each.... approx. 180 named varieties, all TB's. They took off and had great potential this spring. He planned to dig the north half this summer. He is having rot problems in the area that he dug last year and none in the area that he did not dig. He did amend his soil. I just can't make sense of this rot mess. Both the north and the south bed get the same treatment, sun, water, etc.

Thanks to Tropical Storm Bonnie I may never see sun this week. My iris are overloaded on the water front.

The idea of digging up all of my iris every year makes my head explode. That would take a very very long time. I do need to dig some of the iris though for thinning, and some need to be reset as they are leaning after all the rain washed the soil this way and that.

Mary Ann - Let me check on the rain for your area when I get home. What I read from NWS this morning is the dry air mass is on schedule to arrive on Wednesday for the whole SE. We have slight chances of rain for tomorrow then at least seven dry days in a row.Saturday and yesterday were great. I finally have hope for my work boots drying out. I hate putting on cold wet boots.

Blessings

I guess I need to buy some comet. How much do you sprinkle on them? I want to save as many as possible. I don't have a lot to start with

Make sure it's Comet with bleach. Once I cut out all the area of rot I put about two shakes into the space. I leave the space empty to get max air. I can usually save some portion of the clump.

Blessings

Thanks John -- I'll appreciate your *forecast*!!

Our rain will be coming off the Atlantic. Really need a long dry spell. Everything is soggy. Depressing to go out and try to clean things up.

Well, here's what NWS has to say about Kentucky and the surrounding area;

"Rain chances will be on the increase late Wednesday evening into overnight as a cold front approaches the area. This front will continue to slowly sink south and east Thursday into Thursday night. The best shot at showers and storms looks to be during the day Thursday. Continued the theme of 50-60 probability of precipitation on Thu but this will be dependent on how the front swings thru and at what time of day. However, even with this system, the threat of severe storms looks low. If the front stalls out across srn Kentucky as the ecm and GFS suggest, heavy rainfall could be an issue. The stalled front may form a wave on it and ride back north bringing more storm chances to the area, especially depending on how it interacts with upper low over the Lone Star state. With large scale ridge over The Rockies and bitterroots, northwest flow will set up with Great Lakes trough. This will reinforce cold air advection from Canada. Cloud cover may keep temps cooler too, but that is in the deep extended and will follow superblend. The front looks to stall just south of the Kentucky/Tennessee border on Friday/Friday night with lingering storm chances across south central Kentucky. This precipitation should move out by Saturday morning with a dry start to the weekend. Temperatures Friday and Saturday will be a bit cooler in the wake of the front. Highs will be in the mid to upper 70s with lows in the upper 50s to lower 60s. "

The bottom line, sorry to say, is the front that will be drying us folks in the KC area is the same front that will give you rain. And a stalled front is never good for drying out. Looks like a wet week for you folks.

Blessings

Yup -- that's what I'd heard. Damn -- there go some more Irises...................