Grow and Care for Bearded Irises.
What Is Included in This Post:
The Season When Bearded Irises Bloom
Preparing Your Bearded Iris Garden for Success
Planting Bearded Iris Plants
How to Separate Bearded Iris Rhizomes to Grow More Plants
How to Cut Back Bearded Iris Plants
The Best Climate for Bearded Iris Plants
How to Grow Bearded Irises From Seeds
My Storm Garden
Pests and Diseases of Bearded Iris Plants
Bearded irises are gorgeous flowers that provide dimension to any floral or cottage garden. The bearded irises are easy and fun to grow. They multiply each season, so you plant them once and watch them come back with more each year. They come in a variety of beautiful colors too!
In this post, we explore how to grow, care for, and separate bearded irises.
Let’s learn more about bearded irises!
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The Season When Bearded Irises Bloom
The bearded iris blooms from early spring until mid-June, depending on varieties. They need full sun in order to bloom so be sure to place them in an area that receives six to eight hours of sunlight daily.
- Bearded irises bloom from early spring to mid-June.
- The bearded irises need six to eight hours of sunlight.
Preparing Your Bearded Iris Garden for Success
Prepare the bearded iris garden beds by providing quality soil mixed with compost and well-draining soil. The rhizomes need to be planted close to the surface of the soil with the roots down and top foliage poking through the soil. If there is no available foliage, leave the top of the rhizome barely uncovered poking through the soil for sun exposure to help it grow.
Planting Bearded Iris Plants (Grow and Care for Bearded Irises)
Selecting the site: Bearded irises need full sun to bloom so be sure to select a site that receives at least six to eight hours of sunlight.
Preparing the soil: Apply nutrient-rich compost to the soil and plant the rhizomes in early summer, about July, just after the blooms are spent. Rhizomes need soil with good drainage. You can perform an easy soil drainage test with my other post 4 Easy DIY Garden Soil Tests to Do Now to get an idea of how well your soil drains and how to improve your soil and what steps to take.
How to Separate Bearded Iris Rhizomes to Grow More Plants
Bearded irises can become quite crowded in their garden beds pretty quickly. Every couple of years, they need to be separated since they multiply rhizomes in the ground. You will need to dig them up and separate them and replant them in new areas of your garden or share them with friends and family. They make wonderful gifts!
Using your shovel, remove the rhizomes midmorning, just after the morning dew has dried, and before the scorching sun hits the plants.
- Wait until the plants are spent.
- Wait until midmorning just after the morning dew and before the scorching sun arrives.
- Remove and separate rhizomes with your shovel and plant them in other areas of your garden.
How to Cut Back Bearded Iris Plants
Take note that cutting back bearded iris plants is the first step in maintaining the good quality care they need to thrive. Cutting them back properly can help them produce gorgeous blooms and prevent diseases from spreading from season to season.
What You Can Do to Grow and Care for Bearded Irises
Cut all dead flower stems to the base of the plant. Dead flower stems are brown with spent flowers attached to them and dead flower stems are no good, so get rid of all of them. Deheading the flowers will do no good since bearded irises will only bloom once.
Ensure that you clean up all cut flower stems and spent blooms from the ground to prevent the diseased stems from contaminating the plant. You took the time to remove the dead stems, therefore take the time to remove them from the area completely, and do not allow them to stay on the ground to rot.
- Cut and remove all dead flower stems to the base of the plant.
- Remove all cut flower stems and spent blooms from the area to prevent the spread of disease (keep the soil healthy).
The Best Climate for Bearded Iris Plants
Bearded irises do not mind temperature extremes as long as they have well-draining healthy soil and full sun. Therefore, bearded irises can grow in a variety of climates and zones. This gives us all a chance to enjoy these prized spring bloomers!
How to Grow and Care for Bearded Irises From Seeds
While it is easier to plant rhizomes to grow bearded irises, you can start them from seed. Again, bearded irises multiply from rhizomes from underground and need to be separated every couple of years and seeds are not necessarily harvested to grow more. However, if you want to start them from seed, plant them about 3/4 inches deep into well-drained soil in the fall, around October.
My Storm Garden (Grow and Care for Bearded Irises)
I grow a gorgeous spring black and purple iris garden. Therefore, I started growing the dark-colored ones together in my storm garden to enjoy dark spring blooms for dark spring stormy days. I love being out in my storm garden right before a spring storm. To me, it brings the joy of oncoming rain for my gardens to enjoy.
Building my storm garden to enjoy all five senses during a dark spring storm has been so much fun. Since I have recently moved, it will take some time for my plants and garden to adapt to their new space and once it does, it will be the most pleasant space to visit in the spring just before a big storm!
Hence, I have planted spring flowers with dark blooms to enjoy with soft petals to touch with a sweet floral aroma to take in just before a big dark spring thunderstorm!
Adding wind chimes to listen to during spring wind breezes has increased the enjoyment of visiting my storm garden. I have also planted delicious early spring herbs to pick and taste while visiting my dark floral spring storm garden. It truly is a place of peace, a calm before the storm, a haven to hide within dark blooms before a stormy day.
Pests and Diseases of Bearded Iris Plants
Bearded iris gardens can be affected by pests and diseases. While these types of pests and diseases can be devastating to your bearded iris garden, you can take proactive measures to protect your bearded iris plants. You can take organic natural approaches to combat common pests and diseases in your bearded iris garden. You can grow and care for bearded irises successfully.
List of Bearded Iris Garden Pests
- Aphids.
- Iris borers.
- Thrips.
- Verbena bud moths.
- Weevlls.
- Whiteflies.
List of Bearded Iris Garden Diseases
- Bacterial soft rot.
- Blight (gray and white molds).
- Ink spot.
- Leaf spot.
- Nematodes.
Summary
I hope I have inspired you to grow and care for your own bearded iris plants.
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I invite you to check out some more of my posts!
How to Grow and Care for Roses
How to Grow and Care for Hollyhocks
Blessings,
The Off Grid Barefoot Girl
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