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22/04/2008, 17:59 LyndaandRichard Joined on 01/05/2005 Posts 781 Irises Now, I know pretty much nothing when it comes to gardening and Lynda is still learning about northern hemisphere plants, so please bear with me. Bought an iris a couple of years ago. Planted it, it flowered, fantastic. The next year it didn't flower. But bought another one and planted it already flowered. This year, the original one has doubled in size (as it should do) but still hasn't flowered. The other one hasn't flowered either. Why not? They look healthy enough, getting plenty of water and occasional sun, but my irises seem to be the only irises in France that haven't flowered. I'm sad. I don't like flowers very much, except for irises and at the moment am thinking about going off them too. Any ideas? Your Property in France    Report

22/04/2008, 18:11 cassis Joined on 28/12/2007 Manhattan and Glasgow Posts 343 Re: Irises Can you tell us what type of irises they are?  It's a big family of plants with hugely varying cultivation methods. I'll take a chance that they are bearded irises, with big fat rhizomes and spear shaped leaves. The most important thing for these is that the rhizomes should sit on the surface of the soil - they need to be baked by the sun.  If you bury the rhizome they will be very unhappy, and they will not flower.  Might this be the problem? Zoggy played guitar, jammin' good with Weird and Golly. Lyrics copyright Sausage Music 2008    Report

22/04/2008, 19:39 LyndaandRichard Joined on 01/05/2005 Posts 781 Re: Irises Many thanks for the reply. Oh boy. One flower is black (when it flowered), the other is yellow is all I can tell you (told you I'm bad). The leaves do look spear shaped though. I've had a look at them and it looks like at the ground you can see the rhizomes (I'm guessing this is the bulb?) around the surface, part of it is in the soil though. We haven't had a great deal of sun (mostly rain, what happened to global warming?), but then all the other irises have had the same rain. Should I try and rake some soil from around the base? Your Property in France    Report

23/04/2008, 7:14 cassis Joined on 28/12/2007 Manhattan and Glasgow Posts 343 Re: Irises As long as the rhizomes are exposed, they should be okay.  So it doesn't sound like that's the problem. What's the soil like?  They prefer it light rather than heavy. Have a look here: http://www.bearded-iris.co.uk/Planting-and-Gardening-Guide-UK.html Zoggy played guitar, jammin' good with Weird and Golly. Lyrics copyright Sausage Music 2008    Report

23/04/2008, 7:40 LyndaandRichard Joined on 01/05/2005 Posts 781 Re: Irises Many thanks, will have a closer look at that. I laughed at the first sentence though... "Irises are among the easiest of perennials to grow...." That sums up me with gardening, if it's easy, I'll find a way to make it hard! Your Property in France    Report

23/04/2008, 9:20 cassis Joined on 28/12/2007 Manhattan and Glasgow Posts 343 Re: Irises  LyndaandRichard wrote: I laughed at the first sentence though... "Irises are among the easiest of perennials to grow...." That sums up me with gardening, if it's easy, I'll find a way to make it hard! Zoggy played guitar, jammin' good with Weird and Golly. Lyrics copyright Sausage Music 2008    Report

23/04/2008, 10:06 Russethouse Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 9,585 Re: Irises I know its tempting to throw the plant label away, or ignore the latin name, but they really do help.  I try to keep them, even though I like gardening and have been doing it for a while, if there is a problem it helps to refer to it so I can look up the plant and try and work out where I've gone wrong. Cassis is right,there are lots of different iris types. I've got 4 different sorts of iris in the garden here are two. I should have divided them after flowering last year but I didn't, even experienced gardeners get things wrong................ www.quimperclub.org 99    Report

06/05/2008, 20:50 LyndaandRichard Joined on 01/05/2005 Posts 781 Re: Irises Woohoo!!! I've just seen flower stems coming up. By the end of the week, I reckon they'll be out! Must be the hot weather we've been having. The bulbs look exposed, but have moved a bit more dirt from around them to be sure. Russethouse, I can't remember if mine look like yours in your piccies, but I'll be able to tell soon I hope! Your Property in France    Report

07/05/2008, 15:04 andyh4 Joined on 15/06/2005 Frankfurt and Ardèche Posts 847 Re: Irises You also mentioned well watered.  Bearded Irises will thrive with very little water.  Flag Irises on the other hand are marginal plants and must be kept very moist/wet. Andy    Report

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France Forum » Leisure and Pas... » Gardening » Irises

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