Polk County Master Gardeners
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Reblooming Iris
I can remember my father saying, “Better to be lucky than good.” I’m not sure
I really buy that, but now and then being lucky certainly helps.
The year before we left Dallas for Mena, we went to an Iris sale and bought
six or eight plants. In the process of digging them up and moving them to Mena,
we lost track of which plant was which. To add to the woes of the poor Iris, we
stuck them in the sole sunny spot in our yard. It just happened to be more of a
rock garden than a home designed to make Iris happy. But an Iris is a survivor.
When we finally got some raised beds in place with good soil in them, we moved
all the Iris to one of the new beds.
This spring we were delighted to see the plants flourishing and lots of
wonderful blooms. Came the summer, the blooms faded, and I made a mental note to
dig and divide them in a couple of years and promptly forgot the Iris.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that suddenly the Iris bed had even more
blooms than in the spring. Turns out that some of our “mystery” purchases were
reblooming Iris. They flower in the spring and then again in late summer or
fall.
Reblooming Iris needs about the same treatment as any bearded Iris: neutral
pH soil, good drainage, plenty of organic material in the soil, and at least 6
hours of sun a day. They may need a little more fertilizer than the traditional,
single-bloom period Iris. But that fertilizer should be high in phosphorus (the
middle number), NOT nitrogen (the first number). Too much nitrogen will give you
vigorous plants with little or no blooms.
Be careful not to over-water. Usually, normal rainfall is all that Iris will
require after they are past the initial transplant stage.
Be sure to plant Iris at least six to eight weeks before the onset of winter.
This gives them a chance to develop a root system before they have to contend
with really cold weather.
You will need to dig up and divide the Iris every three or four years. Keep
the white rhizomes with green leaves and discard the rest. Trim the roots to
about two inches and the leaves to about six inches. You should replant them
within two to three weeks. A good way to remember which plant is which is to
write the name or color on the back of the fan of leaves with a felt marker pen.
Keep them in a box or paper sack (not plastic) in a cool, dry place - but not in
the refrigerator. Plant them 8 to 18 inches apart (depending on how tall the
variety will get) so that they will have room to multiply.
Polk County Master Gardeners has a new web address:
http://www.uaex.edu/polk/MG/. You
will find lots of information there about gardening in southwestern Arkansas.
By Barbara M. Tobias
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