The tall, beautiful iris, named after the Greek goddess who rode rainbows, comes in many magical colors. Here’s how to grow irises in your garden!
Every gardener wants this perennial. Despite its divine origins, it is hardy, reliable, and easy to grow. Irises also attract butterflies and hummingbirds and make lovely cut flowers.
There are some 300 species in the genus Iris. The most familiar irises are the tall (at least 28 inches) bearded irises (Iris germanica).
The distinctive flowers have three large outer petals called “falls” and three inner upright petals called “standards.” The falls may have beards or crests. Bearded iris are so-called because they have soft hairs along the center of the falls. In crested iris, the hairs form a comb or ridge.
Most irises flower in early summer. Some, mostly bearded hybrids, are remontant, flowering again later in the summer.
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Japanese Iris
After Japanese Iris bloom and I cut off the faded flower and stem, will they rebloomduring the same season?
Japanese Iris
After Japanese Iris bloom and I cut off the faded flower and stem, will they rebloomduring the same season?
Iris not blooming
I have a 1965 home and a tall thin Iris that bloomed for a couple of years, then it stopped and it has never bloomed since then. So I tried moving it to another pot but that did not work. What do you think? Thanks.
Iris not blooming
Hi Rose, Usually, the reason an iris in a pot doesn’t bloom is insufficient daylight. The plant needs a minimum of 6 hours of direct Sun every day for a good bloom. Another reason an iris will not bloom is because the rhizome (which looks like a bulb) is planted too deeply. Believe it or not, the top of the rhizome should stick out–and not have any soil on it! Nor mulch. If it’s covered in soil, you’ll get greenery but no flowers. Finally, it always helps to give your iris some nutrients (food!). Top dress with a low nitrogen fertilizer every spring. Do NOT use too much nitrogen or you will inhibit its blooms. We hope this helps!
Transplanting Iris in Spring
My Iris plants did not bloom last year. i would like to transplant them in the spring. Is this ok or should i wait till fall?
transplanting iris
Irises are ideally transplanted between late July through September because the plants loves the heat and drier weather of summer and the summer dividing will reduce the incidence of bacterial soft rot. However, they will tolerate an uprooting almost any time during the garden season so if fall doesn’t work, go for spring!
moving a bearded iris
You want to allow the iris to grow thru the summer months so as to allow the new increases (babys) to go as larges as they can before dividing the clump .Because when you divide the clump you will cut the roots back to about 3 inches ,these roots will die and are only used to stabilize the rhizome in the new hole (this is another reason to only remove dying leave from the plant and never cut a good leaf off) the plant will grow from the energy stored in the rhizome until it produces new roots ,so the bigger the rhizome the better chance it will survive the winter.
digging up bulbs in winter
I am moving and want to take my heirloom iris and tiger lilly bulbs with me- it is February in NC. Can I safely dig up the roots/bulbs and replant at the new house at the appropriate time?
Transplanting Irises
While it’s generally recommended to wait until the plants have finished blooming to transplant them, if you’re moving, you may not have that option. Therefore, dig them up now and replant in the spring when there’s no danger of frost. The blooms this year may be a bit weaker than usual, if the plants bloom at all. Don’t worry, though—they are just spending their energy putting down roots instead!
Fall - Winter care for Iris growing in planters
Somewhat new to Iris. Have 2 4 foot planters that we grew iris in this spring and summer. Thinking they would freeze in the planters over the winter, so dug them all up and place them in a bag in the garage. Should they be covered with dirt also? Should they be taken to the basement? Our garage is not heated. Just not sure how to save these beautiful flowers for repotting in the spring. ???
overwintering iris
Look over the rhizomes and discard any that show signs of rot (softness) or disease. Fill the box with fine wood chips or slightly damp (not wet!) peat moss or newspaper, and place the rhizomes into this, deep enough that they are almost covered. Store the box in a cool (50°F-ish), dark place—garage or basement—and do not seal the box. Check on them once or twice, looking again for rot or disease, and restore moisture to the fill by misting, if necessary. Replant in spring. Advice for doing this is above and below.
Re blooming irises
My father recently passed and he had ordered reblooming irises which he never got around to plant. I have them as well as his light garden. My question is the leaves are turning brown and dry are these bulbs dead or would I be able to grow them under the light garden until spring.
Iris
If you still have your iris rhisomes go ahead and plant them even if they look dead. They may not come back, but I pulled iris rhisomes out of the ground one spring, they set in a box for a year and I planted them the next spring. Still growing and flowering. That was 25 years ago.
Iris replanting
We built a new house in 2016. The property had not had a house on it since 1969, but the land was full of iris and daffodils. The night before breaking ground June of 2016 we walked the property and dug up as many iris and daffodils as we could find. The iris went into two large ceramic plant pots and that's where they stayed until today. They have been healthy and a few even bloomed this year. They were seriously root bound in the pots but we got them out and separated them into their brand new planting bed. We bordered the bed with the daffodil bulbs which had been stored in a plastic storage box and covered with dirt. They rooted and grew in the box but didn't flower. I wish I had found your site before we planted. The rhizomes were covered with dirt in the ceramic pots because I didn't expect them to be in there a year and a half.. So we covered them with dirt in the bed. My main question is about trimming the leaves. In the opening part of this page it says not to trim the leaves, in in some of the answers here it seems like you are saying yes, trim the leaves.. I'm confused.. Do I trim them back or no?
Trimming Iris Leaves
We can see how that would be confusing! We will clarify the directions above.
After irises have finished blooming for the season, DO NOT trim the foliage, as the plant needs to gather energy for next year’s bloom. At the end of the season, when frost is imminent, foliage will usually die back on its own, but you can also trim it back yourself to help prevent diseases and pests.
When replanting irises, it’s a good idea to trim down their leaves so that they can focus on putting out new roots and getting themselves established.
Iris Trimming
Half of my iris's had their foliage die over the winter but the other half did not. They look like they are heading that way, but in reading all the comments, I am still a little confused as to when, if ever, to cut back the foliage. The foliage is about 12 inches long currently, and the top 3 inches is brown, the next 6 has the yellow tint starting to kick in and the bottom 3 is green. Where should I cut these back to at this time, or if not, what phase would I need to wait for next and then where would I cut it?
Thistles in the Irises . . .
The fill dirt (not a good topsoil) the builder of my home used, seems to be full of thistles. It has been near impossible to keep up with them. They have also inundated my beautiful Irises and I am wondering if I can dig the Irises up, use something to permanently get rid of the thistles, store the Iris until Spring and replant then? I don't have a very large area for planting, rather limited space.
Confused about cutting back
I’m new to the Iris plant and I have 3. You said not to cut back leaves unless they get hit with frost and I know where we live it will soon be frost temperatures so does that mean I should cut the whole plant down before the frost.?
Too late to divide?
Is it too late now to divide and move irises? I live in Kingston, Ontario and until a few days ago we had a sweltering heat wave. It's cooler now with frost threatening. I wonder if it's now too late? I plan to move them to a south facing bed next to the house.
Thanks
is October too late to move irises?
We are going to say that it is not too late to move your irises, however, with these caveats: Look ahead at your weather forecast and see that a severe change or cold period is not forecast. Lift and divide the plants at your earliest convenience (this is being written on Oct 3; sorry for the delay), when the sun is shining, especially on the new bed, warming it as much as possible. Cover the new transplants with a thick layer of mulch. Then add another inch or two.
Iris
Was irises ever called flag.
Flag Iris
There are many varieties of iris and “flag irises” are one variety referring to the many purple-blue “wild irises” that you see in wet meadows & along streams.
Iris like perennial
I was given a plant with Siberian Iris like leaves. It has not produced flowers but instead it produced a cone like growth on the stems. What is this foreign plant?
cone-like growth...
Boy, we wouldn’t want to take a stab at this, Michael. Your best bet might be to take a picture and bring it to your local garden store.
Cone-like growth
Sounds like the plant might be Acorus (Sweet Flag or Calamus).
Iris
Hello I live in the Adirondacks and wonder if I should cut my irises back before frost comes? Thank you.
Cut before frost?
Good idea—yes. See above in “Care” advice and link to find you average first frost date, just to be sure when to expect it.
Iris bulbs
I have several iris bulbs given to me by my neighbor. How long can I keep them before I get them planted? I want to redo a flower bed and hope to keep them until this spring to plant...will that be ok? I know they will not bloom next spring.
irises
I am no expert but last year a friend gave me some bulbs in September. I didn't want to plant them then so I left them in a paper bag , rolled the top down and placed them in my outdoor shed. Planted them this spring and they bloomed just fine.
Iris
My friend gave me a bunch of Irises about a month ago. They were in a cardboard box, she said she would split then in her yard after they bloomed.
A few days later our area had a lot of rain. I have been busy cleaning up my flooded home.
Yesterday, I looked at my pile in a bucket of the bulbs and irises and thought I need to get them in the ground. Closer look and some of the irises are starting to get buds on them to bloom again?
When is the normal time for blooming?
Does it bloom twice a year?
Thanks,
I will be busy today planting!
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