I don't wash them off. I don't cut them apart, either, I just break them at a point that looks like it will snap easily. Discard the crappy looking ones, or any that look slimy or rotten, and save the nicest, juiciest, healthiest looking ones with a good fan of leaves on them to replant. Prepare the new area, add some compost if you have it, and replant the rhizomes, with the fleshy tuber just showing at the surface of the soil, and any attached thin roots covered with soil completely. I usually cut the leaves back by about half to reduce moisture loss.

This is a good time to find out if your friends, neighbors, and relatives want some irises. Or passing motorists.

Deepti, it's really, really hard to kill Iris, so don't worry too much. Yes, on keeping the ones that look healthy, with a good bit of foliage. These things do take off and increase in clump size like gangbusters, hence the recommendation for planting them far apart, but don't worry about replanting all your rhizomes, unless you really do want 300 of the same Iris.

Give away what you don't want. Or plant them where you want something that you don't need to maintain. That's what I'm doing with my extras.

Another thing to remember, is the rhizomes are like toes...or feet with the fan of leaves as the leg....and the clump will move in the direction of the fan..
So when you replant, make little circles of the rhizomes,,,each with a fan of leaves...face 2 one way and 2 the other way so they will stay in a fairly neat clump and not all move the same way...
Throwing excess hosta rhizomes into a road side ditch or behind the barn will tell you how really sturdy they are.
Linda C

Deepti,
May I make a suggestion, sounds like if you don't expand your bed your going to be dividing again soon. Save what you want and replant, and if you can't find anyone to take them you can sell them on the LILY AUCTION. People sell hostas, canna, iris, on the lily auction, but mostly daylilies. Just a suggestion, If you can't give them away you can make money on them, and buy different ones! There is a lot of iris up for sale on the Lily auction now. Do you know the names of the iris that you have? That would probably help, when trying to get rid of them. Just a thought! Good luck! -Jessica

Hi Deepti!

You dug them up just right - it can take a backhoe to remove an established bed of irises. Pick out a dozen pieces of rhizome and replant them. List the others on craigslist, compost them (if you can get them to die) or pot a few up for the fall MAG swap ;-)

I am so grateful for your help! I just finished dividing them (the first mound, not the rest of the bed). I think part of the scariness last evening was that I was pulling them out and slicing them in semi-dark, and it seemed like I was cutting flesh or something...

Unfortunately, the biggest, fattest, juiciest ones seem to be the mothers. Maybe I divided the leafed ones too small, but most of the saved ones have much smaller rz's.

I have two grocery paper bags full of good ones, and one full of mothers that I didn't have the heart to throw.

This evening I'll go back to digging the bed.

Can you tell me what sort of soil iris's like? Sandy, clayey, loamy, etc. I don't want to do a soil test, so some sort of general purporse low-nitrogen fertilizer?

Thanks again,
Deepti

Yes, it is hard to kill Irises. Years ago my sister gave me a bunch of rhizomes of some older varieties. Being too busy at the time, I threw the bunch of them down in the corner of a garden bed and forgot about them - for months! They shriveled up to little puds, and feeling rather guilty, I finally planted them.

Not only did they survive and thrive, but I brought some of them with me to this house and I have numerous drifts of them now! Perhaps the fancy new cultivars are less hardy though?

As for soil, Irises like it very well-drained and sandy. Mine are in the hottest, driest, sandiest parts of the gardens. Many are thriving right along the road, where it is very sandy and dry and god knows what splashes up from the road. I rarely water them.

Just be sure to plant them with the top of the rhizome at the same level as the surface of the soil.

The small pieces may not bloom until they reach a larger size, so don't get rid of the large ones if they are healthy looking.

I would love to see some photos! I am new @ gardening and am also originally from Baltimore, MD

Deepti:

Although I am still learning about how to manage bulbs and beareded iris specifically I would second what Saypoint says and don't wash them. Keep them in a dry cool place until you can replant them. You don't want to have to throw any away because they started rotting.

Kate