I have a 2004 Vesey's catalogue in front of me. You have purchased tall bearded irises. Ideally...you should be planting tall bearded irises in the beginning of August, if you live in zone 3. They need to establish their root system before frost. Mail order shipments get here really late for our zones. If I were you I would plant them up and keep them in the house, under grow lights or in fornt of a window for the winter. You have just purchased about $35 worth of irises plus of course shipping and handling, therefore I'd grow them in the house for this winter if I were you. Plant them in the garden next spring. I find that tall bearded irises are not really the best kind of irises to grow in our zone, rather...short and intermediate bearded irises. Check out ...Chuck Chapman's Irises....and you will have better irises. Question...is there a guarantee that they will make it from Vesey's? Go to Yahoo for a club that I belong to called Northern Lights Iris Society and you will learn a lot about irises that we can grow here in zones 2 and 3.

mmmmm. I would plant them outside in the ground right away. Maybe a light mulch after the ground freezes....but not much and remove it early in the year. Remember to plant shallow.

I know this is exactly opposite of valleyrimgirl's advice. So...now you can be totally confused about what to do! LOL.

I have found Iris to be an extremely tough plant in zone 3. Hard to kill....even the tall bearded ones. The most common cause of death for me is planting them in a too rich soil. Planting too deep will also cause problems. Keeping them in the house will make them 'miss' their dormancy period and, I think, cause more problems than it solves.

Hope others post with an opinion to break the tie.

Jan

Irises do not require a dormancy period the first year that you get them. There are no problems caused by having them in the house. I have been mentored by a good friend who has bought and grown hundreds of irises over the years (expensive ones at that). She does this all the time...keeping the irises in for the first winter if the company she gets them from sends them too late in the season. They will be fine in the house.

We do not know what the fall/winter will be like. Maybe planting them in the ground right now will be okay, the ground may not freeze for a while yet and the irises may have time to establish themselves, but you never know when the ground will freeze...could be in a few weeks (quite often by halloween the ground has been frozen for the winter). A few weeks is just not enough time for the irises to get a healthy root system going so they can make it through the harsh winters we have. Personally...I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Over the years before I knew about the irises and the need to get their root system going well before frost I did the buying and planting about this time and right up to frost. 90% of the time I lost the irises over the winter. I always thought it was the cold winter we had. No...I found out from my mentor/friend the reason was that the poor irises did not have time to make my garden their home and basically freeze dried over the winter.

I agree with Jan...anyone else out there with an opinion? You must live in a zone 2 or 3 though because our coming soon winter situation/freezing soon/iris-needing-to-grow-roots time...is short here.

This is a tough call! I don't have a huge amount of experience with iris', but what I do know, is that the two or three times I've tried planting bearded iris in the fall, they didn't make it. I suppose to experiment a little, you could keep half in the house and put the other half out in the garden and see what happens.

I planted a potted siberian iris out a couple weeks ago. I sure hope it'll survive.

Good luck,
Laurie

Hmmm, i received two tall bearded iris this fall, one from Vesey's and one from Botanus. Both companies said to plant immediately, and i followed directions! :) The one other bearded iris i had was fall-planted and did survive - i mulched, and we had a ton of snow.

As Jan said, you might want to plant some outside and keep some inside - or maybe one outside and six inside! - and see what happens. And maybe there are others here with more iris experience than me that can advise you further.

Hi Wendy,

Plant them out as soon as you can. Leave the top of the iris sticking out of the soil. Actually its best to loosen the soil, make a mound...the top of the mound should be just about at soil level. place iris on it and spread and cover the roots...leaving the rhizome exposed. Once you get a hard freeze.....cover with straw. Make sure you don't plant iris in a spot that is really wet in spring...they like to stay fairly dry.

You will have to watch the rhizomes in early spring and if you see the start of them rotting........lift and scrape the rot off. This will prevent the whole thing from rotting. It should still grow and flower for you.

Visit Chuch Chapmans website.....He has lots of info on there for the care of iris. I have also emailed with him...and he is very helpful.

I have been struggling with tall bearded iris for years......Some don't bloom every year either. I have one that blooms about every 3 to 5 years. :-) Out of zone plants need a little extra care sometimes...and expect to still lose some...but when they bloom.......its well worth it!

Sierra

Hi there,

What about transplanting iris? Could I do it now or wait until spring? I suppose it might depend on just how easily it transplants. That is, if I get a good rootball with the bulb it might not notice it's being transplanted, but if somehow the soil falls off the bulb it might. I am referring to iris pallida, hardy to zone 4. It's in a shady spot near the house foundation (and survived one winter thus far) but it's getting cramped and hidden by a shrub nearby.

Regards,
Glen

Hi Glen,

If Iris pallida is the varigated bearded that I think it is....I haven't found it to be as hardy as the non varigated types. I wouldn't move that one till next spring if given a choice. Or as was mentioned above after its bloom time....end of July or early Aug. Just to be on the safe side. If you feel you don't have a choice....move it and watch for rot in spring. The key is to catch the rot before it gets the whole rhizome.

I have had two types of the varigated.....they lasted a year or two but slowly faded away......rhizomes got smaller and smaller....no flowers and then disappeared. :-(

Sierra

Glen, wait if possible until spring and then deliver some to me for safekeeping in case yours don't make it. Just kidding. But wait for spring.

To the original quesiton, I would tend to agree with the plant it now camp. But the most important thing is, what were the supplier's instructions? If you follow their instructions and lose the irises, they should replace them. If they are not willing to replace them, they should not be delivering them late to cold zones. Most Canadian mail-order nurseries have stringent rules about what they will ship, when and where. If they are willing to ship the product and give planting instructions, they likely have some measure of confidence that the product will survive.

Sierra's advice of planting shallowly and watching closely for rot is good.

I hope they work out for you!

I too am new to planting bearded iris in the fall.
This fall I received rhizomes from VeseyÂs, Botanus and Dominion Seed.
They all were soaked for half an hour in a bucket and then were planted outside.
My experience with bearded iris is limited.

Personally I am reluctant to bring them indoors for the winter. I tend to kill houseplants. My only houseplants are a Musa ensete started from seed this spring and assorted cacti and succulents.
The Musa takes lots of water and the cacti and succulents donÂt seem to have issues with my inconsistent watering.

Ian

I transplanted one iris this fall. Mistake? It had gotten shaded by other plants, so i put it with the two new ones. Hope i didn't kill it... Looks okay so far. :(

Ian,

When I brought inside the little tiny irises that someone gave me last fall I just planted them in a pot that had a tuberous begonia in it, where I had found some extra empty soil beside it. I labelled each iris and then I watered them only when I remembered to...inconsistantly like you mentioned you do. Because the iris had a little rhizome they were able to put up with my watering. I knew that I would lose them in the garden and rather than that I just planted them in the house. They are still alive, one year later.

Sierra,

I like your method of planting irises although it is similar to what I used to do. I wonder if that would work for Wendy. When I last planted tall bearded irises I had spread the roots, covered the rhizome roots with soil and mulched that area, leaving the rhizome on top of the soil. My flowerbeds get lots of snow cover and none of the twenty plus tall bearded irises that fall made it, except the one I had in a pot in the house. Gardening is sure trial and error. If Wendy's irises do not make it this year...there is always next year.

In the small print in the 2004 Vesey's catalogue I have, behind the order form in a little box, the guarantee says..."We carefully pack and ship the bulbs to you at the proper planting time. If you're not happy with your bulbs when you receive them, we will replace them free of charge. Your total satisfaction is important to us." This guarantee does not say that they will guarantee that the bulbs/rhizomes will make it through the winter. Just that if you do not like the bulb you get in the fall, then they will guarantee that you will like it by replacing it free of charge. "If you are not completely satisfied with the condition of your bulbs and perennials when they arrive, we will gladly replace them free of charge." This quote is in the letter from the Pres. of Veseys.

"at the proper planting time"

There's gotta be some kind of implicit guarantee there. Otherwise, what does "proper" mean? I hope the irises survive and we don't have to find out.

Thank you so much for all of your help. I appreciate all the advice, comments and suggestions. I figured "WHAT THE HECK" and planted them. I figured they would have a 50-50 chance outside and the same on the inside. I do not have the room or set up (grow lights) to grow them correctly. I placed my odds on the great outdoors. I am praying to the garden gods that they will be okay. And if not. I will just have more room to plant in the spring. Thanks again to everyone that helped me out. Happy Gardening!
Wendy

Well, if my iris pallida ever amounts to anything, I would be happy to share.

Sierra, sorry to hear yours slowly faded away. Now I really think I shouldn't move it until spring but I definitely should move it to a sunnier spot. I had two of them and one came back okay this spring, the other not as well. Now I am wondering if they even have the energy to make it through winter.

I guess if they don't make it I will just look at it as an opportunity to try something else.

Ian, I too have a musa ensete banana that I started from seed. Still debating on whether to bring it inside for winter or am I just asking for bug problems?

Thanks,
Glen

Well I moved a lot of bearded iris this summers end. From beginning of aug to early sept. The three garden boxes that were built in the front.....which have places for 9 perennials each.....each box now has 4 of those spots with bearded iris in. That is all sizes of bearded iris. From the short smaller ones to the very tall. And shhhhhh...I still had some that had to be planted into the new side bed....and I recently found some in another part of the garden. Iris is one of my favorites...did I mention that. LOL. Now if they don't make the transplanting and past the spring rot danger period....My front gardens are going to look a little ummmmmm...shall I say "funny". :O

Sierra