This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Bearded irises mixed with crocosmias
I hope you can see this - there are what I think are two bearded irises ?? mixed in with all these crocosmia lucifers. The reason I think they could be iris is because the person who gave us the crocosmias has bearded irises in her garden and they could have got mixed in by mistake. Every year they come up and don't flower, presumably because they are not getting enough light/heat, space etc.
I would like to separate them but am afraid of breaking crocosmias and the irises.
Can anyone advise on when would be the best time to attempt moving the irises? How best to do this? When do they naturally flower? Thanks in advance.
0
Posts
I have Crocosmia lucifer -- it's a very tough plant. Apparently bearded Irises can be moved/split after bloom. I'd do it either soon when the weather is forecast to be a bit milder (rather than scorching) or later in summer, that is, September. My lucifers started to flop badly -- the corms keep forming new segments on top of last year's, so they push themselves upwards. At first I replanted them at a much deeper level, but I've now put them all in 25L pots, as I find the crocosmia foliage rather disappointing after they have bloomed. The pot display gives quite a nice effect. Anyway, the main message from that is that crocosmia can stand a lot of moving. It is even possible to break old corms (they look a bit shrimp-like) and they will regrow from the different segments. I know very little about Irises ... but in general a good watering regime after splitting/moving tends to do wonders.
Agreed................Lucifer is very tough, but I would not disturb it now that it's in flower, the flowers will be gone soon enough.
Thank you both, but anyone any advice on how to move the Irises? I don't want to move the Crocosmia Lucifer as there is just wayyyy too much! Whereas there only appears to be about two irises.
It might be no harm to split/divide the Lucifer..........new plants for you, they are pretty indestructible plants