As I have been out doing my fall cleaning in the garden, I did keep thinking about remembering to share this one thing cause it has really helped me. I have a tendency to want to overmother my Irises and it was coming at a cost. I like to get all the brown leaves off as the irises start going into dormancy. This in and of itself is not bad. However, the way I was doing it was and I believe I lost multiple Irises due to my bad habit. I know most folks probably know this advice but there is always a new one out there who may not so I think it is worth repeating. I am pretty sure I got this advice off this forum but haven't heard it said in awhile so here goes...
My bad habit was that I would yank those brown leaves off instead of cutting them off with sizzors. Doing this in the Fall, when temperatures were dropping left some with injuries and rot would creep in. Last year I started cutting off brown leaves (and not too close to the base) instead of yanking them off and I have had such better success. I live in an area that is quite warm and dry so rot is not usually prevelent to start with unless I injure them or the dog steps on them and injures them but the yanking at the base seemed like a sure-fire way to start that rot even in this dry climate. Therefore, I definately recommend the sizzor method to remove those brown leaves.
