I think they are two, separate kinds of rot, Tom. I quite often have rot in the early spring in the rebloomer bed...no smell, just soft and gooey.....on the rhizomes that tried to bloom and froze out the fall before. Sometimes also on "regular" iris ....just the "mother" rhizome, not the side increases....with the "larger" rhizomes being the worst. I think they are too large to just "dry up", so they sort of have to rot away. I'm sure that some kind of bacteria is involved, but it's not the same one that causes "bacterial soft rot", or so it seems to me. THAT stuff stinks ! You can usually smell it just walking through the beds. When I've had that, it's always been later in the spring, about the start of bloom, and seems to start at the point the stalk is rising from the rhizome. If I were you, I'd dig one of the affected plants, and see if the increases are growing new roots. If so, I'd tend not to worry too much about the mother rotting away, although you might want to scrape as much of it as possible away, as that would "dry things up" a little quicker. I feel bad for you folks that are having trouble so early, but I think you will find it's not as bad as you think. Hopefully, last years increases are far enough along to " carry on with some bloom".....Arlyn
