Irises are perennial plants, not bulbs, so it is best not to cut off the foliage. Most people say that the plant will lose the ability to photosynthesize if you cut off the green leaves, and that may have an impact on flowering. Can you just pull off the brown leaves and lightly trim the green ones, or is that too much work?

If they are so ugly that they drive you nuts, go ahead and trim them back. Try to leave as much green leaf as possible.

You can cut the stalks off down to the rhizome any time after bloom.

Renee

Thanks, Renee. That's actually what I meant - they're finished blooming and I was wonderng if I can cut them down now. Or maybe I'm not using the right terminology. Thinking about what you posted, the "stalks" are what the flower blooms on, and those can be cut down. But the "foliage" is the long leaves and those should not ever be cut. Correct?

You're right- the stalks that held the flowers can be cut off at any time. The long leaves that are green should be left on the plant, unless they get brown, diseased, or too ugly for you to look at, then you can trim them back. Some people trim them back to about eight inches in fall. I only trim my foliage back when I divide, as hippiris described, but I divide about every three to four years.

Renee

Ok, thank you all!

Does cutting the bloom for enjoyment in the house hurt future blooms

No, it doesn't. Each rhizome only blooms once. Most have already produced new rhizomes, and after bloom, the "mother" dies, but the babies will bloom next year.

In late fall, maybe the end of September here in zone 7, I now go through and trim all my iris flags/leaves back to about 5" while completely cleaning out the beds of all old iris debris and dead leaves. This is one of those essential steps in helping make sure you don't have iris borers the next year, as they lay eggs in late summer on iris debris and leaf tips. If you remove all of those things from your yard entirely, the likelihood of borers is reduced significantly. After having my iris attacked by borers badly a couple years ago, this spring everything is looking great, blooms everywhere, enjoying it immensely, and there has been no impact from cutting back just before winter sets in.

Most of my irises have long green leaves but only one flowered

I probably just messed mine up I trimmed the fans, I wanted to separate them because I was having a lot of slugs. I thought if I trimmed them I could get rid of the slugs.

Don't worry, iris can take it, unless you just happen to have a really finicky variety of bearded iris. And there are some in the newer varieties. My mother in law religiously trimmed her iris back to 3-4" tall right after they finished blooming. If they grew back quickly-and they often did-she would trim them again. I assume this is what she was taught to do. They bloomed nicely for her every year & thrived.