Autumn Transplanting And Planting Of Irises

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

In summer, irises delight us with multi-colored long-flowering meadows, and because of their unpretentiousness, there are more and more irises in the flower beds. In addition, now there are many varieties of irises, differing from each other in color, height, flower shape - you can choose for every taste. Even if you love flowers with multi-colored petals, you will find these among the irises

But, like all perennials, irises multiply every year and they need to be thinned out, planting or simply removing excess roots. If this is not done, the roots will be squeezed out to the surface of the earth, which will affect the frequency and intensity of flowering, and can also lead to the death of plants. The optimal time for planting irises is the beginning of autumn. In September, the flowers have already faded, the roots are ready for wintering, but there is still enough time before the cold weather for the irises to take root.

Flower bed preparation

Let's start by preparing the soil. If you plan to plant in the same place or just add another plot to this flower bed, then first you need to dig up all the irises and set them aside. The roots of the flowers will not suffer from this, on the contrary, before planting it is recommended to leave the dug irises for an hour and a half so that their roots dry out slightly. We put the dug roots in a shady place, not in the sun!

We remove all weeds from the flower bed, scatter a small amount of wood ash and peat. The amount of peat depends on the density and depletion of the soil. If you have good black soil, then you can only do with ash. If the soil is not very good, then peat is a must, it will simultaneously provide the plants with nutrients and make the soil lighter for the roots.

Now we carefully dig up the flower bed, removing the roots of weeds from the ground, or loose it well with a walk-behind tractor or other devices. Grind all the clods. We level the flower bed. We dig holes with a depth of 10-15 centimeters (if the winter in the region is little snow and very frosty, then it is better to make holes 15 centimeters deep in order to avoid freezing of the roots). The distance between the holes is about 20 centimeters, no less, since the irises grow rapidly.

If the soil is dry, then the wells are slightly moistened. If the soil is moist, then you do not need to additionally moisten the wells.

Preparing irises for planting

For transplanting irises, carefully dig out all the bushes that need to be planted. Then we remove all the leaves, but not under the very root, but leaving "feathers" 3-5 centimeters long. We carefully check the roots for decay and disease. If part of the root is diseased, stained or damaged, remove this part of the root. In general, it is advisable to remove the entire root entirely in order to avoid disease of the rest of the irises on the site. We break well-developed roots into several parts, each part is a future flower. I also keep the roots for about 30 minutes in a weak manganese solution, and then dry them for an hour and a half. But this is an optional procedure.

Landing

We take the dried roots of irises, divided into parts and slightly (within an hour and a half), lay them in the holes and carefully sprinkle with earth. And we leave the flower bed alone until frost. After the onset of the first frost, sprinkle the planted irises with peat, sawdust or other insulation with a layer about 10 centimeters thick. This will allow weakly rooted flowers to survive the winter calmly. Next year, it will no longer be necessary to insulate the irises, the rooted plants perfectly tolerate the cold winter. And in the spring, do not forget to remove the layer of peat, straw, sawdust and other insulation so that the roots do not overheat.

That's all, the flower bed is ready. Next summer, some of the planted flowers will delight you with bright colors.

By the way, from irises, just like from tulips, you can make different patterns on a flower bed. The main thing here is your imagination.