This series of articles is written especially for those who live in the midwest, though others interested in the Iris may find much helpful advice in it also.
It is surprising how little is commonly known about the care of the Garden Iris, also called the German Iris.
Most people think that all you have to do to grow beautiful iris plants is dig a trench and drop the rhizomes in, as close together as you can get them, shovel the dirt over them, and that is all there is to it.
Then, if the irises do not give more than a minor performance, the gardener excuses their failure by saying, “Oh, well, they’re only irises, you know. You can’t expect much from them.” And then he is likely to add, “I never cared much for irises, anyhow.”
Well, I did. They have been my hobby for the past 15 years. And I have found that there is almost as much difference between a neglected iris and a well-cared-for iris as there is between two different varieties.
Iris Rhizome
An iris rhizome with the right kind of soil and plenty of room to grow in will produce much larger flowers and more of them. The soil even seems to affect the color of the irises to some extent.
A true pink dwarf seedling of mine, when transplanted to a location that now appears to have been acid, produced lavender ïblooms instead.
It is well-known that limey soil produces pink flowers on hydrangeas and Virginia bluebells, while acid soil turns them lavender or even blue.
From this, I have concluded that the soil must hold the answer to that well-known question: “What causes an iris to change color sometimes when there seems to be no reason for it?”
The soil also has definite effects on an iris’s size, shape, and markings. I have sometimes transplanted irises to a more favorable location and seen them produce blooms that were twice as large and with markings much more vivid than in the old location.
I have had very surprising questions about how to transplant and care for irises.
The following 10 chapters attempt to answer those questions as plainly as possible and clarify some common misunderstandings.
1. The Soil
Garden Irises are a good hobby in the semi-dry climate of the mid-western states. My home state of Nebraska is specially adapted to cultivating Garden Irises – that is, German Irises – because of the alkaline soil.
Although Garden Irises do well in any good soil, if it is not acidic and not too rich, they do best in dry, alkaline soil.
But they will fall far short of the beauty that should be theirs if this dry soil is caked and clayey, even if it is alkaline. Adding sand and wood ashes can easily remedy such a situation.
If possible, these should be mixed into the depth of a foot, though I have never found it necessary to mix these in so deep where the soil is well-drained.
Wood Ashes
The ashes from burning autumn leaves are a very good kind of wood ashes. Garden Irises dislike coal ashes, at least so far as my experience goes. Perhaps it is because the soil is so dry and limey. They also dislike acid soil very much.
For this reason, they should not be planted too close to evergreens or oak trees, for the falling leaves of those trees make the soil acid. Besides this, irises do not do very well in the shade of trees. Some irises, I have found, will not bloom at all in the shade.
Old Christmas Trees
Old Christmas trees, which can be used to cover many flowers in the late winter, should not be used, in my opinion, where the needles will fall thickly on or around German Irises – or Dwarf Irises, either – because of the effect they have on the soil.
At the home of relatives in northwestern Nebraska, the iris flowers were enormous, which had been of ordinary size in our garden several years before. The ground in that new location was literally like a sandpile.
Not only that, but the iris patch seemed to be located over a lime deposit, so common in that part of the state, for every time I put the spade into the ground, the white clouds of lime dust sprouted up around the spade, like miniature volcanoes.
Lime
This might lead one to the wrong conclusion that lime should be added to the soil in an iris patch. But remember that this was natural lime in that soil for millennia. The entire countryside in that location is white with natural lime dust.
Iris experts in my town have warned us against the artificial addition of lime to the soil, except in the form of bone meal.
Plain lime, added to the soil recently, is likely to burn the rhizomes – at least in the soil already rich in lime.
Bone Meal is A “Must”
But the bone meal is a “must” for German Irises and Dwarf Bearded Irises. It is the only indispensable food for them.
One good handful for each group should be mixed with the topsoil just before the irises are set out. It will not burn them like most- plant foods will.
More will be said later about the ideal location for irises.
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