Bloom is much later this year, and most of what is blooming is on short stalks with little or no branching.

Walter Moores, NW MS, 65 mi. S. of Memphis.

Hi Walter, We;ve talked before. I was concerned with my Iris being late to bloom and many with no bloom stalks at all. They were all so pretty last year so this seems really bad athis year. I can only hope for a better summer with more rain. Do you think an application of 0-46-0 would be of help for next years blooms after the bloom season is over?? Blessings, Mona

I don't now what to suggest at this point. It might help them in the fall. The plants should be getting better on their own because of the spring rainfall over there, which we haven't gotten. Memphis is several inches above in rainfall, but we are about ten inches behind already this year.

Walter Moores

My iris are about 20 days behind last year here in West Central Georgia. We had an extreme draught last year but have been blessed with good rains since first of January. I'm having lots of bloom now but the stalks are very brittle, quite a few of them are short.

I've had several of my bloom stalks to just fall over and a few have even broke. I was blamming some of this on my new dog, but after looking closer, a bunch of the stalks seem to be very weak.

Last year was a terrible year for all our plants and trees. So far this year, it's been better. We've had several really good rains, I just hope it continues. Walter, my son and his family moved to Hickory Flat in late January of this year and they've had probably 10 more inches of rain than we have. Every time a cloud gets close to North Ms, they get a flood. It's a good thing they live on top of a big hill! One of his older neighbors told him that they've had more rain this year than he could ever remember. I wish I could send some of his your way.

I have a few more blooms today, but it sure is looking sparse for this year. I sure hope my daylilies don't suffer from the same thing. Some of them seem to be less green than normal and seem to be suffering from more leaf streak this year than ever. I guess the weather was even hard on daylilies last year.

Here's to having a normal season for our plants and all of God's living creatures. Blessings to all, Mona

My bearded Iris are all behind as well. Last year I had buds opening just as the killer Easter deep freeze zapped them first week of April. This year my first named bearded only started blooming a few days ago though I've had a few unknown naturalized types blooming a little before. I have also observed very weak stems on most of those unnamed varieties and I have had to stake almost every stalk this year if I wanted to see them bloom. Today I examined others that I didn't think were going to make a showing this year and I was glad to see they are beginning to send up stalks. I hope they aren't stunted. It looks like I'm finally going to see some others that have never bloomed for me before so I'm excited.

This past winter it seemed we had quite a few more below-freezing nights compared to the year before when the winter was so warm. I figured the later bloom was related to that but it's hard to say for certain.

Danielle

I am in NE MS(southern Alcorn County). Iris bloom is later this year. So far I am having the best iris bloom ever. The TBs are just starting to bloom. I lost about 60% of my bloom last year to the late freeze. Most did not even try to bloom. I wonder if that is why I am having so much bloom this year? Lee Mincy

Hi Lee,
I'm seeing a fee more bloom stalks on some of mine, but still not many. I lost some last year to the freeze also but still had more bloom last year than this year. I think I need to do some serious amending to some of my soil and some of mine also need dividing. I also have had several that have gotten too much shade after some of my shrubs have really grown the last few years.

I live in Guntown. If you're ever down this way, you're welcome to visit my garden. It's just a mix of hap hazard plantings, nothing fancy. I do grow many daylilies and even grow seedlings that will bloom for the first time this year.

I'm glad your having a better bloom season this year. It's just hard to know what will happen with the really weird weather we've had. Under normal circumstances, I've always said that perennials are slow to grow the first year, spend the second year growing foiliage and bloom like crazy the third. But, the last few years have not been normal in my garden.

Blessings to all, Mona

Oh yes, I'd love to see some photos!

Mona, It's not just the iris, everything seems to be blooming more than usual. The wild dogwoods have so many blooms that they look like the commercial dogwood trees. My daffodials which are almost finished(just the small white wilds ones that are all along the highways are just starting to bloom) had the most bloom I have ever seen and I have had them on this hill for 30 years. The verbitum is a solid mass of blue. Lee Mincy

Mine are late this year also..about 2-3 weeks late. Our show is next weekend so hopefully I will have something to enter.. we have had more rain than normal..