Irises 2012--Take One

I have a gazillion pictures of our Irises this year.  The Louisiana Irises under the Bradford Pear are especially stunning.  The show has only begun.  More to come!

It's a Dry Heat

Such a dry heat that the air hits my face like an oven door opening.  The temperature guage is set at a constant 100 plus degrees day in and day out.  We are at 27 days in a row with 100+ temperatures, not counting the days we had in late May and early June.  The last record for the searing heat wave was 1980 with 42 days of solid 100° weather.

East Texas is getting a little relief from gulf moisture surrounding the high pressure ridge, but it isn't strong enough to make Mr. H go away for a while.  Today's weather report showed a tropical depression at the bottom of the gulf with hopes of moving toward Texas.  Time will tell.  In the meantime, watering the lawn is a waste of water and money.  The trees are stressing badly.  The bees are at their hives because there are few flowering plants from which to feed.  Birds stay near the ground and are appreciative of the daily supply of water in the birdbaths and sunflower seeds. 

All I can say is I'm holding out hope for the August prediction of rainfall.  Something has to give!

Irises--A Family Favorite



Prize-winning Iris

In an earlier post, I mentioned how my grandma loved Irises.  The variety she grew, I believe, had to be native to North America because they were so hardy and multiplied so rapidly, she couldn't dig them up fast enough and give them away.  We inherited a few of these lovely soft purple Irises and are having the same problem.  The only trouble is, if they aren't divided and given away often enough, they tend to overcrowd and do not bloom as much.


Growing Season

The main reason for writing this post is Irises will be blooming soon in Texas.  Some parts of the state will have the showy flowers bloom in February.  In my area, they tend to bloom in March and April.  My mother-in-law found out about the flower from me, and as usual when she planted her Iris bed, she had a show that lasted for a good month or more.  I have not been so lucky. 

This is probably due to the fact that Pat and I both are somewhat Darwinian when it comes to gardening.  It's the survival of the fittest around here.  A plant in our garden has to live on the rainfall and intermittent watering they receive from Pat.  Fertilizer?  What's Fertilizer? 
I digress. The point is the Iris blooming season is upon us, and if they have been neglected during the winter, never fear.  There are a few things that can be done now to ensure lovely spring blooms.



Grandma's Iris



Care

Begin now watering established rhizoms once per week.  If it rains or snows, skip the weekly watering.  Be careful not to overwater.  Overwatering can cause some of the rhizomes to rot. 



DO NOT cut the leaves at all right now.  In fact, we do not ever cut the leaves unless they turn brown.  The rhizomes use the photosynthesis process to store sugar once blooms are spent.  This allows for lovely blooms during the next growing season. 

 Fertilize with regular NPK---nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium 5-10-10--once per month during the growing season.  Pat sprinkled an organic cotton-hull compost around our Irises.  He did this back in the fall and the compost has hopefully been activated with each rain and watering. 

Once Irises begin to bloom, wait until the blooms and stems dry up before removing them.  Again, the rhizomes use the bloom and stem to store sugar for the next blooming season.

Pests

The only pests I've noticed on the Irises are snails.  To help out this growing season I will be ready with the beer to entice the slimy slugs to their happy demise. 

Irises Irises Irises

Bearded Irises taken 2007

As fall and winter take over the garden, reviewing spring pictures of the past bring a certain hope and anticipation for the 2011 growing year.  One flower I anticipate every year are our Irises!  We have many "categories" of Irises in our yard.  Two main categories are:  Bearded and Louisiana or Dutch Irises.  From there we have several different "classes" of Irises.  We have:

• Grandma's prolific and ever-multiplying Bearded Irises which are a light dusty purple
• Irises that were in the bulb bed when we bought the house
• Louisiana or Dutch Irises and Award-winning Bearded Irises given to us by Mom Boney
• Irises from Auntie's yard

I wish I could say we still have every single Iris that has been given to us, as we have not purchased a single rhizome ourselves.  However, like everything else in our garden, we keep many and lose a few.  The picture above is of some Irises Pat planted in our garden by our back door.  That was the only year they bloomed. I assume they are gone.



Award-winning Irises taken December 2010

 This Iris bed is home to the Louisiana and Award-winning Bearded Irises Mom Boney gave us.  Allow me to clarify--neither Pat nor I grow Irises to enter them in competitions.  These are Irises that have won awards by someone else's hard labors.  Mom bought them from a garden club member who grows these in her yard.  Some of the rhizomes are still here and some are gone due to one heavy foot (mine) while weeding.  This bed is also home to our yellow and purple Louisiana Irises, although the yellow ones tend to show stronger here. 



More Irises beside our home. 2010

 Why so many Irises?  Well, one year I was commenting to Pat how my Daddy hated the little patch of Irises in the backyard of my childhood home.  My grandma tended to them with great care.  However, once the growing season was over, Daddy would mow them down.  She would get so mad at him!  Yet, year after year they would come back even stronger and prettier than before.  I managed to convince Pat that they are the easiest things to grow in a garden.  And for the most part, they are.  But the reality is, I think Pat tends to the Irises as much, if not more, than he does to the rest of the yard!!



Here is a shot of our latest Iris bed.  When we bought our house we had Red-tipped Photinias surrounding the back and side of our home.  They developed a fungus and Pat eventually ripped them out.  What was my suggestion??? Thin out Grandma's Irises and put them in the bed.  They're free!!