Hi, I'm in Bergen County and love iris. I have a smallish property so I'm growing just 2 kinds of bearded and some iris cristata. I'm partial to lavenders and blues. What kinds/colors are you growing?

Monmouth County gardener here, and I love irises. I have them mixed in beds and borders all around the yard. Dwarf Bearded German Irises (the first to bloom), medium and tall bearded, dutch, blue flag, yellow flag (unfortunately ... will probably be eliminating these invasives soon), Louisiana, Siberian, a couple of reblooming varieties for the autumn garden. Some are still in pots, awaiting a permanent home, and are thriving anyway. Such undemanding plants!

I wrote a piece on irises for the spring "Home Gardener" - on pages 6-7 of the Green Heritage newsletter at http://co.monmouth.nj.us/documents/132/green_heritage_spring_2015.pdf

Have you been to Presby Memorial Iris Garden in Montclair? Beautiful place, especially at peak bloom time, usually mid-May into early June. They have one or two iris sales each year.

I'm recovering from my iris borer attach from last year. I lost all mature ones (10 years old patch), so I salvaged only what was left over. After I replanted them, I just realized that I expanded (double) the iris bed!

They are all tall purple/blue German beard iris. I like the fragrance and color. Very showy.

I do not expect much this summer, but I look forward to next summer. Be very alert with borer problem....

Wow. Well, I just started 2 Iris gardens - so I planted Tall Beardeds, 1 Siberian, 2 Louisiana, 1 Iris versicolor, and 1 Iris virginica - than I have a lot more TB's coming in July to be planted. I live in Ocean County - used to live in Morris County, and have been to Presby Memorial Iris Garden in Montclair, truly a wonderful place. I don't expect any blooms this Spring, but hopefully all the Iris I've planted recently will bloom next year - I have planted and will be planting more of the Historic Iris (Wabash, Dauntless, Indian Chief, Frank Adams, Helen Collingwood, Alcazar, Rosy Wings, Quaker Lady, Rameses, Crimson King, Ida Red and of course, Iris I. germanica). SO I'm definitely looking forward to next Spring and seeing a lot of great Iris blooms.

Iris borer moths lay their eggs in late summer and fall. The eggs overwinter on the foliage and emerge in early spring, climb up the leaves and tunnel down to the rhizome, emerging as adults in late summer. To reduce the likelihood of borer infestation, remove old iris leaves and stalks by April 1 ... or as soon as possible if it hasn't already been done. If you see borer tunnels, cut the leaf just below the tunnel and destroy the cut portion and the borer within. Or, some people just pinch the leaf hard, squishing the borer inside.

Nice collection, Maximus; beautiful varieties. Although I have names for most in my garden, many came to me as "pass along" plants for which I don't have cultivar names. Although they're lovely nevertheless, it is good to try to keep track of the names and pass that information along with the plant when sharing it.

My old iris bed was full of weeds and I was going to move the iris bed anyway. So I did not pay much attention to it. That was a really large bed. So I dug up the old roots, soaked them in diluted bleach and cut off the infected pieces. I plan to spray them this spring, just make sure they do not come up this spring.

I believe I had some borers last year, but never before (7-8 years)....

I try not to spray any kind of pesticide (insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, etc.). The more I learn about the amazing web of life out there, the more more I realize I need to learn ... and be careful about disrupting that web. If you've removed all of last year's leaves and stalks, you should not have borers this year. The adults died last fall after laying their eggs ... on the leaves. Remove and destroy (don't compost) the old leaves = remove the eggs>larvae (borers)>adults. Of course, the adult moths fly, and in August will be looking for good places to deposit their eggs for the next brood, so continued vigilance and hygiene in the garden is necessary.

Here we has an open area with all kinds of live things. So do not know what to expect each year. My winter pumpkin patch was wiped out too with vine borers before I realized what happened. Then the Japanese beetles sucked the juice out of my sweet cherry leaves. The tree is still 1" diameter after 5 years. There are many other creatures.

I'll see what I can do about it.

One way to outwit the squash vine borer, on zucchini at least, don't know how well it would work for pumpkins, since they have a longer time to maturity: direct seed your zukes in June; sow a second set, close to the first set, in July. By August, if the first set has been attacked by borers, just pull them out and you have your back-up crop. The borers will not affect your back-up crop as they will have passed that phase of their life cycle by the time the plants are large enough to support them. If the first set has not been attacked, you can pull the second set. It may seem wasteful, but perhaps not so when compared with pulling out a whole mature plant that is already beginning to bear fruit.

I hope I've described that clearly enough ... and that it might work for pumpkins. Alas, I haven't enough sunny area to spare for pumpkins.

When I planted my first rose bushes years ago, I also treated the lawn with milky spore disease in hopes of fending off the Japanese beetles ... haven't seen one yet (knocking on wood).

It sounds like you've got a lot going on there. Good luck!

Iris is the almost the least I care about, along with the daffodils and daylily. They are ornamentals. Then I get fruit trees, vegetable and wine grapes that I tend most often. So low maintenance is very important....

The older I get, the more important low maintenance plants are becoming, along with those that have multiple benefits/seasons of interest. Irises (like daffodils and daylilies) certainly put on a beautiful show while asking for so little in return, and the spiky iris leaves add interest to the garden throughout the season.

Since I planted many of my Iris rhizomes this Spring, there is not a lot of growth going on right now. I have to wait for end of Summer/early Fall for that.

I planted rhizomes last fall, was worried about the winter, but there are lots of leaves growing from each one. Not sure when they are supposed to flower so hoping I didn't mess them up because there are no flowers in sight

Hey eterprincess - what type of Iris rhizomes did you plant ? TB Iris ? They bloom in May. Depends on the type of Iris you planted. What part of NJ do you reside ?

Bearded iris from lowes and Home Depot, I think tall bearded, one re bloomer.

I live between Trenton and Princeton

Oh ok, they will bloom in May. I am in Toms River, in Ocean County.