I live in zone 6 in Missouri . Iris has been my favorite flower.. we all had crazy summer weather . I was wondering what to do with my stand of Iris this year. With the heat , the tips of most of my flowers are yellow and dried out. Going into fall, should I cut foliage down to ground level so new sprouts can return to feed the plants ? Thanks in advance

The leaves, although burned and ugly, are feeding the plants as long as they are green. Those old ugly leaves will die back when the plants have harvested as many nutrients from them as possible. Plants are great recyclers.

In my mind, if you remove those old leaves before the plant is done with them and encourage new growth... winter comes and all the leaves die anyway. The plant has lost a lot of potential stored energy plus wasted more trying to grow new leaves just before a long winter's nap. You can cut the tips off if they really bother you.

I was thinking that. Thanks. I thought the heat got to them this year
Happy gardening to you and yours

I'm in Zone 7b, with hot summers and cold winters. Here the iris have two dormant times--summer and winter. They grow like crazy in spring and fall. August is the recommended time to dig them up, thin and divide if necessary.
One fall, a neighbor's gardener cut her iris to the ground with a string trimmer. I was horrified. The iris just came back in the spring, bloomed fine, and didn't look any different.
I generally agree with Lucy on this issue, but I do recommend clearing out the dead leaves and flower stalks.
If you can't tolerate the current messy look, it's fine to trim up the leaves, just short enough to look better. Trimming to an inverted V shape neatens them up and doesn't do any damage. I don't recommend the string trimmer method, but it won't kill them!

Better to use scissors if you trim them. If you want to trim them now don't go shorter than 6 inches since it's getting late in the season. It won't hurt them any. If you leave the leaves then pull/cut them off after they die back because irises don't like alot of stuff on top of them. If the clump is crowded you might want to thin it so it can stay healthy.

Although the iris looks like it's not growing in the summer, they are growing, only it's developing new rhizome increases.

DeWayne,
I see that there is an Iris Society near you, in St Louis. You might want to get in touch with them for information about local recommendations.
http://www.stlouisirises.com/b...
I've picked up some wonderful plants at my local Iris Society's annual sale. Prices were right, and they were all plants that do very well in this area. Plus, members were very friendly and happy to share their knowledge.
Even if you're not interested in meetings, you might want to check out their annual rhizome sale. (Not until August )

Our local society had their sale in July. I thought it was too early. You need to leave the rhizomes alone for 6 weeks after bloom. So that didn't leave much time for digging and dividing before taking irises to the sale.

Thanks everyone…..I decided ….let nature take its course.
Removing dead leaves come spring seems to be the best choice.
Great to have garden friends. You can always spot a happy gardener……they have a smile on their face😊😊😊