I ordered iris from two different place. One has arrived and the bed isn't ready yet. It will be a few more days until I can get to it. It said you could leave them laying out on newspaper but its better to plant them. Should I plant them in a temporary location for just a few days and then move them when the new bed is ready? I'm thinking that would be better than letting them just lay on the kitchen counter. TIA!

If the bed is going to be ready so soon there is no need to plant them if they are bearded iris. They will be just fine left in a cool place until you are ready. They are very tolerant of being out of the ground for a few weeks. If they are Japanese or Louisiana iris they need to be kept wet and planted pretty quickly.

Lestv said:If the bed is going to be ready so soon there is no need to plant them if they are bearded iris. They will be just fine left in a cool place until you are ready. They are very tolerant of being out of the ground for a few weeks. If they are Japanese or Louisiana iris they need to be kept wet and planted pretty quickly.

They are tall bearded iris. So I will just leave them out and get the bed ready ASAP. Thank you.

Hope they give you a nice show in the spring!

If it is too hot in your area to plant, or to work in your beds, there is another option. Plant them in pots and then transplant them in early fall.

I have a number that I bought a week ago lying in the shade and I should plant tomorrow. Not a problem in my estimation.

Keep them cool indoors. Plant when your bed is ready, hopefully in a few days. Water daily (to moisten the soil, not make a swamp) until you see signs of new growth, then back off.

To quote one forum member... "irises are like cockroaches". The bearded ones, anyway. They're tough, they'll survive.

(A year or so ago (about this time of year) I dug out the rest of a large patch of irises, threw some of the smaller rhizomes into a 2-3 gal pot (no dirt), set the pot aside in a shady area (I was debating whether to replant those rhizomes or not) and promptly forgot all about them. I stumbled across the pot the next spring, and some of the rhizomes had started to put out new green growth due to all the winter and spring rain.)

I have kept rhizomes out of the ground for a month, just kept them in paper bags in my garage. The leaves looked pretty dried out by the time I planted them, but they bloomed and increased the next spring just fine.