You can store them dry in paper bags or the box or however they shipped them. Do NOT add any water to them, and it doesn't matter so much where you put them as bearded Iris are really tough. Personally I'd just set them in the shade somewhere, but away from where animals might bother them. In the house is fine too, and I can't imagine your garage getting so hot they would be damaged, because it takes a lot of heat to hurt them.

Have fun planting.

Chris

Well, I like that answer! :)

Thank you!

Here's how they looked when they arrived...layed between straw(?). How long can I keep them in the box before damage is done?

Tammy

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I'd plant them sometime in the next six months. People have kept them in car trunks for a year and still had some rhizomes survive.

Bearded iris rhizomes are not quite like any other plant in what they like and what they dislike. If you try to treat them like a normal perennial, you will probably kill them with kindness. They are adapted to a summer dry climate. That is when they are dormant, and when they want very little water. That is going to be one of the worst problems you will have with growing them - keeping them dry enough during the summer.

So the 5 I got last week probably need to come out of the pots I planted them in...eek! I made sure the tops of the rhyzomes were above the soil level, but I guess I've probably been over watering them. Thanks for the advice :)

Tammy