Aryln your beds look really nice the plants look healthy should give you lots of bloom in the spring.
Polly I have rock hard clay in my back yard with pockets of black dirt, almost impossible to get anything to grow and do well other than trees and most of those I had to dig french drains, to combat the problem I had dirt trucked in to make berms, I think that is the most important part is what they are growing in, Iris are pretty tough and will grow just about anywhere but they thrive in well drained soil or at least that has been my experience, when I tried planting in the clay and amending the soil my growth was not very good, they bloomed but did not increase the way they should. I have been tilling in compost in the berms and also using it as a top dressing, or almost like a mulch around the bulbs and they seem to love it. I also add bone meal in the early spring about the time they wake up and start growing it takes a while to break down for the plant to benefit from it but I think it helps.
I use snapshot in the spring and fall for a pre-emergent I finally found it for sale online and it was quite a bit cheaper than buying it locally
I am starting to spray for leaf spot this fall and will continue with it throughout the spring,my plants looked horrible with it this year and I saw a couple commercial gardens in California that did not have a speck of it anywhere, and I want to try to get rid of it if possible. I don't want to look at it if I don't have to at least up around my house. The product I am using is called Cleary's3336 fungicide I was told it was a excellent product from a grower, and it is the best I can buy with out a license we will see how it works in May.. I tried Daconil last year and wasted my money it did nothing for me just like most of the products you can buy at a Home Depot or Lowes.
I fought Leaf hoppers all summer and I used Demon Pesticide to kill them it worked incredibly good and I recommend that product it was great and will work for just about any insect. I sprayed every week this summer and it helped even my roses looked a lot better, they were not chewed up this year from Japaneese beetles. I watered really heavy this year about twice a week, because it was such a brutal summer we had record days in the 100's and I think my iris responded really well to it. My experience has been that they will grow and really thrive when I water weekly in a normal year along with rainfall as long as the soil will drain, I would not water as much with out well draining soil that is the key, they will survive without it but the best growth comes from them getting watered on a regular basis in good soil. It does not hurt either to buy good sized bulbs from Superstition's to start off with
Here is a link to buy any of these products on line if interested.
http://www.domyownpestcontrol....
