How do irises flower?
karenfletcher
Posts: 25
I acquired an iris at a plant swap and for a couple of years it didn't flower but did multiply. Last year I had one beautiful flower (see pic), and this year I can see four flower heads appearing (from a total of about 15-20 rhizomes).
I'm actually planning to move some of the rhizomes and probably discard some, so my questions: does it take a few years for an iris to flower, so that I should keep the ones that have flowered this year? Or do they take it in turns so that I'd have better luck with ones that haven't flowered this year? Or are they supposed to flower every year so I must be doing something wrong?!
On a side note, something has been eating the leaves, I think it must be some kind of leafcutter bee since there are nice tidy chunks taken out of the edges, fairly high up. I assume this won't bother the plant in the long run, it's just an interesting thing to see!
Thanks for any advice.
Karen
Posts
The rhizome that has flowered will not flower again, the best time to move them is after flowering so you should plant out the younger rhizomes & dispose of the ones that have flowered.
The rhizomes need to bake in the sun to give good flowers the following year. Are the rhizomes too deep or in shade, or covered over by nearby plants?
Hi Mark, is there any way of recognising which ones have flowered after the fact, or do I really have to keep track? And is this the case for all irises, or is it dependent on the sort?
Fidgetbones, my garden doesn't get a huge amount of sun, so that may be it.
My thanks to both of you.