we are out in prim Springs Tennessee
this morning at Irish City Gardens with
my good friend and neighbor Greg
McCullough Andy good to see you good to
see you
it is late September a beautiful
beautiful fall day iris is a incredibly
wonderful flowering plant everybody has
them but there are different groups and
there are different ways to care for
them and as I understand it
Greg fall is really a critical time to
do the right thing the bid we're in
right now is a bearded iris bed the
bearded iris it's got a little beard on
it on the falls this bed is a reblooming
bed so we get an early season bloom
generally early May and then the
majority of the rebloom comes in October
November but you can see this one just
opened today we have a few that are open
so Greg do I understand correctly that
after these bloom in the spring and the
early summer and the flowers are spent
that would be a good time to deadhead or
cut off the flowering stalks we do cut
the stalks down on all of them as soon
as they do that first one we cut the
stalk off because that lets the plant
put all its energy into building up the
next bloom and for rebloom errs that
will be fall for the non rebloom burs
that will be the next year do you do
anything with the foliage in this summer
or is that all done in the fall no all
the foliage is done in the fall you
don't want to cut that back because you
want to leave it as long as you can
because that built the balloon for next
year but once we cut the foliage we
clean up all of the dead material around
the plant because a there's a moth that
will come along and lay eggs in this
dead material and the the worms that
hatch out drill down through the foliage
into the rhizome and will kill the plant
and it's a fairly common problem in the
south it's called an iris borer so it's
fairly common you know everywhere in the
south so that's just good maintenance it
keeps the pests and the disease
as much as possible out of your out of
your foliage so we don't cut that
foliage back until generally late fall
or maybe after even after the first
frost I'm just always used to mulching
my flowerbeds and trees and shrubs but
it sounds like mulching is not a good
idea for iris pets bearded iris want to
be bone dry
they don't want mulch and they want to
be planted right on top of the soil the
rhizome the root wants to be right on
top of the soil so mulch on top of those
plants will encourage bacterial soft rot
in irises which is another southern
problem so know we you can see this bed
is just bare dirt and that's the way
they want to grow and they want to be as
dry as possible and a very little
fertilizer so as a general rule of thumb
for the bearded iris high and dry they
want to be yes then I in dry yes I can
remember that okay you say we should dig
iris in the summertime right after the
bloom in July and August is the best
time to move bearded irises that's when
in that heat that's when they're closest
to dormancy okay and that's when you
would dig them and divide them to share
with friends and yes move around your
garden okay this is a bed of beard less
iris also known as Siberian correct iris
here and what is the the difference in
care or similarities and care between
this and the bearded iris well just
during the year Siberian Iris want to be
moist a fall care for these we trim the
foliage back severely these are go
completely dormant so they'll die all
the way to the ground so we trim them
back severely then we mulch this bed
we're bearded don't want mulch the
beardless Siberians really liked them
all so we'll put an inch or two a mulch
on this bed every year in the fall late
fall we bees bloom generally about a
week after bearded irises so you extend
your season a little bit and but these
also want fertilizer where bearded don't
these like hein
nitrogen fertilizer they're exactly
opposite care for bearded as far as
water and fertilizer and mulch I just
want to make sure I understand this
correctly the bearded iris like it high
and dry and lean and the beardless iris
of which this is a bed an example of
Siberian Iris like moist soil so you
mulch which helps retain the moisture
and keep the weeds down and they also
like richer nutrient so I'll show you
fertilize twice per year is that correct
very good again you want to leave the
green as long as you can because that
builds your bloom up for the next year
these look good even after frost kills
them they turn a rich reddish brown and
so the foliage is is attractive even
after they've been frosted but generally
we try to cut them right after the first
frost right after the first frost yeah
and as far as fertilizing would you
fertilize in the fall or in the spring
early spring and after bloom so we
usually give them two feedings like
early Oh mid-march maybe to get them
going for the balloon that year because
they'll bloom like the second week of
May and do use a slow release fertilizer
or a fast-acting fast-acting so just a
10 10 10 triple 15 a little 15 okay Greg
we're here in another bed of beardless
irises Louisiana iris and as I
understand it the Louisiana like moist
soil and high nutrient is there any
other difference that the Louisiana iris
group would like as far as maintenance
and care not really they'll take exactly
the same conditions that Siberian Iris
will so they want malts they want
fertilizer they want moisture but
Louisiana iris will grow in water
they'll grow in a regular garden soil
but they will grow in standing water so
if you have a backyard pond you can sink
these down in water and there that's
really where they're happiest is in in
standing water okay so for water
gardeners Louisiana there's a way to go
yes okay and as far as longevity and how
long these last if folks are planting
iris
they're Gardens how long can they expect
them to keep going and reblooming are
they short lived or long lived well
essentially if you take good care of
them they'll last forever
they they reproduce every year they
multiply and the multiplication the one
that multiplies is an exact genetic
duplicate of the original
so they will be around forever wonderful
so it sounds like a good garden
investment yes I believe so
thank you Greg for your time thanks Andy
good to see