Leave it in place, remove the spent stalks, and I bet it'll increase for you after a little while. If there's no life in the clump next spring, ditch it.

Laurie

I have had some success with cutting spent rhizomes into pieces and replanting them. It is better to let them heal a while before planting them. Does anyone else do this and what is your success rate?

Last year I read some advice on bloomout that recommended leaving the bloomstalk on the rhizome in the hope that it would continue to photosynthesize and spur increase. I tried this on my Ravens Wing and this spring there are three tiny new fans coming up on the old mother rhizome. I'll sure try it again in the future when that occurs.

Mike

Well, I completely cut 2 of the remaining 4 stalks to the ground before I realized that every fan put up a stalk and I was in danger of bloom out. I left the other two on the plant, presuming that if it's green it's getting energy so we'd see where we went from there. I guess it's a good thing I did it that way especially in light of Mike's success.

Roni

It does make sense to keep the stalks on the plant, now that I think about it, but it's important to cut off any seed pods that may form. If you want increase, you don't want the rhizome diverting energy to seed production.

Laurie

I haven't tried it, but I do agree with the theory that a stalk is still producing energy for the rhizome as long as there's not something attached to the other end of the stalk pulling energy away from mama....like a seed pod. If you have several bloomstalks, then maybe cut half and leave the other half. Turn it into a test and let us all know the results. :-)

I'll do that. I've removed any potential for seed pods by deadheading the blooms once spent. I removed the stalk completely of 2 rhizomes and left the other 2. I will tell you which begins to produce increases when and which set produces the most by fall.

Roni

Ok. Noticed yesterday that the first increase is visible. It is on one that the stalk remained intact but the the possibility of seed pods removed. The increase is up about 2".

Will keep you posted. This may be the start of a new trend. Leave the stalk in place until after increase season minus the seed pods of course. LOL.

I've had success with cutting up old spent rhizomes and burying them a bit deeper than normal . . . Of course this was all done after bloom and after the bloom stalk withered.

I saved my Octoberfest from bloom out that way - it took three years to get another bloom, but it worked!

Burying the spent rhizomes deeper seems to be the key. I planted 10 pieces with the top at ground level and did not get a single plant. I planted 8 pieces with the tops barely covered with soil and got 2 plants. I planted 14 pieces about 1 1/2 inches deep and got 14 plants. This is not a complete test however because these were planted at different times and were different iris. I got the better results later in the spring. I started doing this because I found an iris growing in the grass in my back yard where I had trimmed and divided iris that had been given to me. The rhizome was on top of the ground and had taken root. It had laid there all winter. That's why I was planting at gound level to start. I have no idea why cutting spent rhizomes into pieces will produce plants. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Lee Mincy

This is a very interesting post!

Shadow

I have got another test with spent rhizomes going on now. On May 17 of this year my wife's Aunt's mother gave me all the iris I cared to dig out of a bed she was doing away with. She said that there was only three colors in the bed but I hate to see plant material go to waste so I got has many as I had a place prepared for. I worked about 3 hours and brought home several bags of iris. When I got them washed and cut into pieces I had 225 rhizomes with fans and 175 pieces of rhizomes I had cut out of the clumps. These iris had not been seperated in many years and the rhizomes were long and thin with a fan on one end and the other end hard and drying up. Some of these were up to six inches. I cut the long ones back to were the roots started on the rhizome. I cut the fan less rhizomes that were left into about 1 inch sections. I only composted the dried up end of the rhizome. We had a very dry May and this bed is about 300 yards from a water source so I just planted them in a well tilled area. The 225 that had fans really don't look very well and have turned yellow and many look like they are going to die back to the rhizome although some are showing new growth. The row I planted the rhizomes pieces has very healthy looking green shoots coming up in many places. I might add that we have had over 7 inches of rain in June. I believe that I may get about 50% of the rhizomes to produce plants maybe more. Lee Mincy

Very interesting indeed, Lee. Please keep us posted as to the progress - my bet is you'll save more than you think.

Several years ago I got a giant bag of historics from a friend of a friend who was digging up their old farmstead. Same conditon as yours - old, spent, dried, and undivided-for-God-knows-how-long. I cut them up but didn't have time to dry them - just shoved them in deep (that's about 2 inches in my neck of the woods).

I got a lot of fresh starts off them the following spring and lovely, full blooms this year - my guess is I saved more than half.

The kicker of this story is I got the bag in NOVEMBER in Wisconsin - not particularly hospitable weather; for humans OR irises!

That just goes to show how hardy these really old historics are to have survived these many years. The piece I had to take root in the grass must have gone through 50 or more freeze thaw cycles since it was not in the soil and it never stays below freezing here during the day except on very rare occasions. Lee Mincy

Ok, my conclusion is....esp. after my major loss this spring.....pamper them and they will die. Beat them, abuse and ignore them, toss them in the corner, and they will grow and bloom like crazy! just nuts!!