I live a couple of miles from the east coast of Australia, almost exactly on the NSW Qld border. In May I bought some inexpensive irises hoping they might bloom. The foliage is nice anyway. and I plant them between my daylilies which have rust.
I would love to know what bearded irises do well in Florida or Georgia.
Before choosing plants I searched this and other sources for vigorous and/or reblooming cultivars. Price and appearance (and fragrance) were also criteria. We have long hot and often humid summers here. We get only one or two slight frosts a year. Alarmingly for the whole of Australia the last few years have been more than 2 degrees Celsius warmer than long term averages. I sometimes think I should not try and grow anything here. But with enough water here we can still grow daffodils (but not tulips), hellebores, even raspberries and wasabi. We can grow paw paw (papaya), mangoes, bananas and passionfruit (but not rhubarb and almost certainly not cashews). Our "winter"is the best time to grow tomatoes and vegetables.
When I got my irises I first put them into pots, mostly small. I kept them watered as we have had little rain but they were growing well. Some I bought last year grew well but gradually regressed as I thought then that I should not water them. They were in clay/shale subsoil, but at the top of a slope. I am now watering them more and will try and resurrect them.
I can only plant out when the ground is moist enough to dig, and I have materials to improve the "shale/soil". I mulch close up to the plant with wattle leaves or monterey pine, often on top of cardboard which suppresses weeds and keeps moisture in and extreme heat out.
Around the spring equinox I watered well, and when rain was forecast, I sprinkled a little Citrus fertiliser around all my established plants. My ground is not even heavy soil, but mostly is shale subsoil. They removed a hill here and used it for fill. So I dig a foot down, then into the bottom of the planting hole I pile lots of green manure and compost. I know that doing that can result in pooling that can rot plants. But the water soon drains away here or is siphoned out by wind or sun. I do make sure they are not planted much below the very surface.
In the last month I have so far had first ever blooms on:
Tay Daum
and
Stairway To Heaven
and
