No, not really. Most of my flower bed are mixed perennials with mostly irises, daylilies and asiatic lilies...so they get plenty of runoff fertilizer. Our soil is quite sandy once you get down about a foot or so... so you never have to worry about standing water if we get a lot of rain.

I live on a corner lot right in the city of Durham. Have about 1/3 of an acre. It is an old house so is built close to the front street, leaving me with a large back yard for the irises.

We have 4 1/2 acres but the back 2 are wooded. Iris beds around the house have growing shade so plants have been moved to the sun of our former horse paddocks.

less than 1/3 of an acre (like maybe .30?). And they are all in the back yard.

Cindy, irises grow great in the UP. Check out Pickle Barrel House. They have an iris bed on the property. Sandy soil gives great drainage and no borers. You should do okay.

Hemlady said:I don't have much room for iris. I live on a city lot in the suburbs of Detroit and although it is a corner lot, I have over 300 daylilies planted. I have absolutely no grass in my backyard. Now, if I lived about l80 miles north where our small l bedroom cottage is, I would have more room, as the lot size is about l/4 acre. Not sure how well iris would grow in zone 4 though. Would love to get out of the city and move up there.

I live in Wyandotte and have no grass in my backyard either hemlady you are almost my neighbor!

We bought 3 contiguous lots of 22 to 32 acres each in 1986 - with eldest daughter, who is a nurse practitioner- after selling a small
B&B in town, at a profit. With the $$ made, it was land or the stock market. Never regretted buying the land. We're in a very small town, in a beautiful valley, in N. California.
It's 78 acres of mostly forest - a hundred years ago it was heavily logged.
Here are some views. We built the house and pottery studio 30 years ago.

I'd like to have a new iris bed dug on the curve to the right.




Mill Creek - year-round flow, better now after the drought.,







Chris built the garden tori gate.


My Mom, who lived with us until she passed away at 98. The lower garden.


At the top of the hill.


This is this morning's view of one of the iris beds, taken from the balcony.


We have more than enough land - what we need is energy!

Gorgeous, Jan! Add the iris bed!

That is truly amazing! I could sit on that hill top the rest of my life,

You all have some nice places. Love your forest and hills Jan, I have all very flat and sandy soil here. No hills at all. I have just under 23 acres, most of which is pasture for the horses. I have a large yard though, and have 13 beds, some mixed, and some just irises. I am at my limit for keeping up with the work. (some might say I'm over the limit) With over 600 named varieties of irises, and 250ish seedlings, I am at a point where I must cull heavily to be able to add the ones I've ordered. I have about a hundred cultivars of daylilies plus some other lilies and plants. All of my pictures of beds have been on here a jillion times so I'm not going to post all of them. I'll try to take some newer ones this spring when they are in bloom. Here's just a couple so you can see how flat things are here.

Beautiful plantings, Tom

I don't know where everyone finds room to plant all the rhizomes that I'm seeing in the photo's......
how close together are the individual cultivars being planted next to one another? In some photo's
they all look right up against one another, leaving little room for expansion or increase. 600 Iris is
a lot ALOT of Iris. I don't know how anyone has the time to manage, maintain and monitor that large
number of plants. Wow! I give you guys credit ! Your gardens are magnificent, and I am very envious,
but I think I will just have to be happy with the 40 or so Iris that I have in my garden, I just don't have
the stamina or strength (or youth) to be able to handle anymore than that.

That's a sensible point of view, Alan. Unfortunately, some of us are nuts!

I plant 1 foot apart. Dwarfs are closer.

Ooooops! Well, from the very beginning of planting my first iris bed, I never planted 1-ft. apart....HeeHee. I was greedy and wanted to grow as many Historics that I could get my hands on!
I don't grow Dwarf's of any kind, they just ain't my type!

Super jealous of your land Jan. Absolutely beautiful! I'm also really jealous of toms flat land! I can't imagine how much easier my life would be having a flat yard Ohhhh and the horses! You and Mary Ann are very lucky, they are such incredible animals! Living in Kentucky i get to see them all the time but it's still my favorite on a nice sunny day to stop on the back roads and pet the horses or watch the goals learning to run. Took lots of horse riding lessons when I was little, absolutely love them but unfortunately this city girl never had the opportunity to grow up with them. Maybe someday.

I bought my horse at age 30 & 8 months pregnant. Horse lovers will do anything. Just like iris lovers. Unfortunately we do age.

Beautiful photos Jan and Tom!

I have over an acre and have my irises in 2 different place. The named irises are in my field and the NoID's go up on the hill. I'm torn between wanting more land, or needing less.

I have one acre, but a lot of that is hardscape (driveway, house, walkways, pool and pool deck, house, sheds), some of that is lost to the creek and creek banks, and much of the garden gets too much shade. Anything out in front of the house is subject to deer damage (right now we think we've finally got them blocked from entering the rear yard). Anything anywhere on the property is subject to rabbit and gopher damage.

Many of my daylilies and irises are in pots. If I am right about the deer (fencing), I may be able to bring those potted daylilies out of hiding and actually plant some of them. (Some of them are going buh-bye... due to rust.)

My irises have not done too well this year (per a different thread, it may be way past time to divide , though I think increasing shade may also be part of the problem ). My eyes are bigger than my sunny unfilled space, and certainly my energy can't keep up. Sadly, that does not stop me from buying more plants.

It is going to be a challenge come July and August when those iris boxes start arriving... I need another acre... this one mostly sunny.

Jan, looking at your house.. it just felt like home.. what a lovely setting.

Tom, I never get tired of seeing pictures of your garden.

Jen, it looks like you have LOTS more room for Iris

I'm on nearly 12 acres.. Most of it is wooded hillside, but the garden and house are probably around 2-3 acres on a gentle slope. This was 4 years ago..


I've started dissecting the lawn.. I cut out about a 6 x 70' section here.. and there's a smaller cut on the other side..


I took this section of weeds


and did this last year..


My neighbor (and enabler) built these boxes for me that now house historics.


My former tenant left this raised planter that I used for some SDB's..


The veggie garden got overrun..


When it maxed out, I had this wall built at the top of it where a wooden retaining wall had long ago failed..


They're tucked in all over the place..


This wall just got finished... Now I've got a new 70 x 5' bed to plant

Sherry, you have a beautiful piece of property and lovely gardens. Thanks for sharing your pics. It's all very nice