Your rhizome is not dead, but being well watered and overshadowed by a ground cover plant will likely cause it's demise in the near future. I cannot tell from your picture, how well drained your soil is, but it looks fairly heavy and there is mulch close to the rhizome. All these are things that will make your iris very unhappy.
Cheers, jan

Could it be too much water? I see you have the mulch pushed back, which is good. But the gushing sprinkler... maybe not.

Maybe someone from your part of the country could say how often they water?

Terry

Rhizome looks buried.

Walter Moores

My varigated looked the same way in a very wet Spring and I lost the fan. The weather dried up and you should see it now with all the new growth. There is hope unless the rhizome is starting to rot. Check the rhizome and get all the dirt off of it. Just try to give it drier and less smothered conditions. It think you will be surprised. I certainly am.

Thanks for all your input. I was under the impression that these iris preferred a moist soil.
I will follow these suggestions and perhaps the iris might come back next year??!!!

Nothing was done wrong. This often happens on vareigated foliage iris. Not enough chlophyll area to manufacture food and the plant just wilts away. We have never been able to keep such irises for more than a couple of years.

I did go out there to check and the top part of the rhizome is showing, should the entire thing just be laying in the soil? Do I not bury it at all? I was very surprised to find a fresh bit of foliage, so perhaps all is not lost??
I sure could use a little direction on how to plant these! I do have heavy clay soil, but the bed the iris is in is amended heavily enough for peonies to thrive, but I am willing to do what it takes to succeed with this fabulous iris!

When did you plant it? Was it in a pot when you got it or was it dug up?
If it was recently planted it may just be a little transplant shock and it will be fine by next spring....

It's been in the ground for two months....it looked fine for 7 weeks, then a sudden and immediate loss of leaves!

Wow, I know how you feel about losing one of your iris's. If the rhizome feels a little mushy you might try dusting it with something like comet or ajax something with Bleach in it. I think you should cut back on the water it receives too. I've found that an iris will die quicker from too much water than not enough. That is one of the reasons so many people plant them in cemeterys. They are not really that fussy a plant. I understand that the varigated ones do not grow as fast as the other tall bearded iris's.

I lost a great many of my iris's this summer due to all the rain we had in East Texas. There was no place for the water to go. The iris bed stayed under water for nearly 2 straight months. They turned up their nose and died/rotted.

I've grown Iris's for over 30 years and I've never really had any problem other than rust, and a few bores.

Bearded irises such as your variegated plant prefer a very well drained, friable soil (planting in a raised bed or mounded soil is best), minimal water (they don't require any supplemental water at all unless you are in drought conditions), plenty of air circulation around the rhizome and foliage (don't allow other plants to crowd them or mulch to cover the rhizome), and full sun. It sounds to me as though your rhizome is rotting as a result of overwatering. Check the rhizome and make sure it feels very firm. If it feels spongy or mushy, it is rotting.

Variegated leaf irises do tend to be less vigorous than green leaf varieties, so if you want large, showy clumps of irises, the green leaf cultivars would be an easier bet.

Laurie