I love this thread and have been meaning forever to get my 3 I am watching posted: I'll call them
The Good: (A Burseen gift named Spring Starter that I just planted this summer - Quite the Chunky Monkey - yes?).
The bad: (Going Dotty which I planted this Summer) This isn't bad because the vendor gave me a bad plant but I planted it in an established garden and then forgot I planted it there so I didn't water it for a week or so and get those roots going. The Rhizome is hard so I really hope it makes it. I have waited a long time to see it.
The Ugly: (This is Inner Darkness - If you can see it in the middle, It has rot). This also is not the vendors fault. I stepped on this at one point and then at some point the Rhizome got covered with a layer of soil. I was weeding near it one day and reached down and found jelly - Ugg! But I read what someone else posted about just uncovering the rhizome and exposing the rot to the sun. Since it had the increases on the side, this seemed like the best option. And so far, it is doing OK But I am definitely watching...

That should be a good comparison of rhizomes in various conditions. Great idea .

Sure hope they all turn out to be 'Good' eventually!

If the increases are far enough along, I would carefully cut/spoon the soft stuff out of the middle, then leave it exposed. Just to keep the rot from spreading further.

Had to cut the mother rhizomes off two new ones yesterday that have good increases. The mother was entirely soft but I was able to cut it off and gently lift it without breaking the outer skin. I poured bleach water on the cuts and they are now exposed to scab over. I really want to see both these iris survive.

I agree, you should try to remove the mushy stuff to prevent it spreading and to help the rhizome dry out. I got quite good at that this summer with an entire delivery of rhizomes that were wrongly treated in transit. Depending on how bad the rot was, I used a finger, a spoon, or a knife to get rid of the mush, then planted them in the sun. A couple had what I thought of as radical surgery, where I cut off more than a third of the rhizome. Almost all are recovering, some more quickly than others.

8/29/2016


Today 10/20/2016


Urban Cowgirl is out performing the others so far.

Really good growth! Most of my irises look terrible at the moment and will not improve until spring... Only 6 or 7 more months to go!

The backyard bed

7-21-2016


Today 11-2-2016

wow gabe, great skills. looks wonderful!

They are looking nice going into winter.

That looks great Gabe!

nice & GREEN

irisarian said:nice & GREEN

I used a very very little 6-10-10 the night before Hurricane Matthew downpoured. I was afraid to use any and almost didn't. Being this warm still I watered once a week. The garden looks very promising this upcoming spring

Since the irises have awaken from their slumber, I worked a little 6-20-10 into the older the beds before the last rain storms.

irises gone to sleep

It's interesting the differences across the country. At the time that our California irises are waking up from their summer 'heat dormancy' the irises on the East coast and probably in the north are beginning their winter "cold dormancy". So how does it work for those of you in other areas? I'm thinking about North Carolina. I know you get the heat...what happens in winter?

Here in the central San Joaquin Valley we get some cold spells (though some of you will laugh to think that 25F is cold) so the irises are dormant from July to mid September, grow from mid-September to mid-November, then sleep for about 8-10 weeks and wake up in early February to start growing again.

Marilyn, our cycle is pretty similar to yours. They start a growth spurt in September that will go on until about December. Then all the spring flowers start really growing rapidly in the end of February. Then in March we are prone to ice storms which freeze the daffys solid and give rise to the many chimera iris that show up in April.

This year we are quite warm still, but the biggest growth seems to be on my dwarfs. The TB's had it rough this year with heat and endless rain. Now that they are out of heat dormancy it has been very dry so the new fans have stayed small ( this is existing iris only, the newbies never had the summer fan loss).

Most all my foliage is sturdy and green. The recent chill is bringing the in PBF in alot. They'll look scraggly by January I'm sure, but alot of shorter foliage for next year's blooms are too tiny to really be affected by our semi tropic humidity trapped region. North Carolina has many sub climates though, from mountainous like Asheville, to green Midwest like weather north and North East Carolina, to Sandy desert settings in Fayetteville where alot of tobacco and cotton is produced, and sub tropical areas with sand like the coast. Then there's Charlotte, we're just a damn clay mound with small remiments of gold underneath, we're also called the 49'ers here. A decent amount gold sits uptown here, but not enough to dig vs the cost of of labor. They just plop new building on top instead. 1st world problems