I think the latter; otherwise, you'll be opening wounds that might lead to rot. Let Mother Nature take her course.

I get a lot of West Coast things and many bloom on stalks at registered heights the first year and continue to prosper throughout the season. The new ones from CA always do the best here. OR stuff may or may not perform well the first year here. Certain OR growers' rhizomes do better for me than others and they are all in the same area, probably no more than ten or fifteen miles apart. Figure that one out!

Walter Moores

Thanks, Walter. I probably wouldn't be able to cut off buds anyway.

Neil

I would only debud if it there were no increases and it looked like it might be bloom-out.

If you debudded, it probably would result in bloom-out because mama rhizomes rarely send up increase, maybe from the bloomstalk, but not from the mama. It would be your luck to de-bud all of those that would bloom out, and then you would have to re-order everything you got in the last year or so. That could result in megabucks being spent.

Walter Moores

Hummm I find this interesting as most of the time I get more increase from the mother. Could this be because of local conditions or areas. I have only lost one iris to bloom out. Even then I did not let it grow another year.

I have had some that were not mothers grow for two years and not have any increase. They are not usually good growers that have done this. I have tried splitting the mother up in pieces but it seams to make no difference other than causing rot in some of the parts. I do plant the mothers in pots.

Mike G

I'd also wondered about cutting the rhizome into pieces or just nicking it in a few spots.

When I have bloom out here, the rhizome usually just sits there for up to a year with no sign of life and then will begin to grow a small fan. I'm not sure now if the fans have been coming out where the bloomstalk was or other places on the rhizome. Something to watch for.

Neil

Neil on a non-blooming rhizome most of the increases happen on the heel. On a mother more seem to come from the sides.

For an experiment I would try (on a expendable rhizome) to notch out the bloom stalk area. Be sure to let it dry out for a couple weeks. Dried out rhizomes seem to produce increase better than fresh. My experience.

Mike G

This is my reasoning: if you want to increase vegetative growth on plants like coleus, you pinch off the tips and this will stimulate lateral shoots to form from the stems. Since a rhizome is (botanically speaking)a modified stem, removing the terminal bud (flower bud) should have the same effect. I don't have alot of experience with bloomout, so I could be wrong, but I left a stalk on a bloomout victim last year and it never recovered.