Siberian irises not blooming..

13 years ago

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong with my siberian irises; my bearded irises grow and bloom just fine. I'm wondering if maybe my siberian's don't get enough water? Or they don't like our heavy clay soil. Quite a few of them don't even get very tall, it's like the leaves are kind of stunted and just stay pretty short. I rarely fertilize...maybe I should do that? For the first couple of years when I had them, they bloomed really well and grew big and lush. Now it seems like every year they get a little more sparse, or else they grow good leaves but don't flower.

Needing to divide definitely isn't the problem, I tried that the year before last and they didn't improve at all. Any ideas?

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weeper_11
Original Author

13 years ago

I had read that they can still do OK in the same conditions as bearded iris, they just won't flourish as much..but I guess that isn't exactly true!

Speaking of growing irises in shade, a couple years ago I divided and threw out some of this dwarf purple iris that I have, because it had a ton of leaf spot that I couldn't get rid of and it looked terrible. I tossed the worst plants under an evergreen near our house. The last 2 springs I have noticed that those plants have managed to root - with their rhizomes completely out of the ground - under the conifer branches. Their leaf spot has 100% disappeared, and they have bloomed happily each year. Weird! Who knew iris can survive in full shade, in a bunch of pine needles, with their rhizomes completely unburied! Silly plants.

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Comments (7)

don555
13 years ago
Is shade an issue? I have some near a pine tree and the irises used to bloom really well but now that the tree is much bigger they are shaded and bloom poorly.
weeper_11
Original Author
13 years ago
Nope, I'm afraid not, they're all in different locations throughout the garden. i'm really stumped. The only thing I can think of is that they don't get enough water, but all the other perennials in my garden seem to do fine. Hmm...
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Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden
13 years ago
Siberians like lots of water as compared to bearded iris which are almost drought resistant. They really do best along side a water feature or natural pond. Just their nature. :)

Ginny
weeper_11
Original Author
13 years ago
Yeah, I guess I'll have to try watering them and see if they improve.
don555
13 years ago
Interesting. I wonder if mine are doing poorly because the pine is shading them or because the pine is stealing all their water?
Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden
13 years ago
Irises are amazingly tough little plants! I have had 2 year old, sitting out in the garage, totally dried up little rocks grow into beautiful healthy plants!

Ginny