I just like the way my backyard garden looks now that I have the TB Iris bed there and the daylilies. Plus you can see the iris because it is weeded.

Well I think it looks very nice Rita, well worth all the work you put into it!

It looks fantastic! I love it when everything gets cleaned up, and you still have lots of daylily blooms I see!

Betty, that is a double row of late bloomers behind the iris bed.

Come and weed my garden? Please?

Then come to Utah when your done at Lucy's

Hee, hee. hee. It is enough work to keep up with my own garden.

I was checking the 4-rhizome clump in my pic above and pulled off an old leaf. The leaf was mushy at the bottom so I tugged on another. The 'new' part of the rhizome moved a little too much so I dug the entire clump. That rhizome definitely had some rot so it was trashed. The 3 other rhizomes were cleaned and bleached and look pretty good. The iris is one of the common dark blues and not worth a lot of effort but the 3 good ones will probably be replanted.








There had never been an iris in that location until this one was planted last summer. It was in 90% full sun with good ventilation. The only thing I can come up with as a cause of the rot would be too much watering. The bed is raised about 12 inches and filled with a very well draining soil mix.

I hate iris rot.

I would water when planted, then leave them alone. The bearded ones really don't like wet feet.

Believe me, all ill it takes is a combination of summer heat and water!

Jerry, you, like me had a very wet spring and cool temperatures, And unlike me, Illinois got some major torrential downpours this summer. I think that sometimes, even the most favorable planting conditions, can't handle Mother Nature.

I am glad that by the end of this summer all of my TB's will be dug up and moved. As beautiful as my iris bloomed this spring, this year's weather has really done a number on them. ~Jan

If it is not one thing it is another. This year was the first time I had applied fungicide correctly and had very little leaf spot damage, Prior to this, by now all the irises would be a mass of brown dead leaves. I hope this instance of rot is an isolated event.

Are there any fingicides to be used for prevention of rot?

I believe it's caused by bacteria rather than a fungus, but I'm not sure.

Rot is supposed to be bacterial even when borers damage the rhizome. I think Dee uses a commercial type of anti-bacterial product.

Oh, ok Thanks. I was just wondering for us regular gardeners.

Rita, here are a couple of my newbies that started ye olde rot inside the fans, so I removed all the leaves and scraped off the mushy part, hosed it off, and then I put the pot outside in direct sunlight for a couple of days. They certainly will not bloom from the center of the rhizome, but I have high hopes that the little green increases that are just starting will take off and save the plants for me. I have not treated them with anything other than sunlight, and the first one is really greening up after at least a week so I think there's no problem with that one. The second one was just "treated" the same way this morning, so we'll see. If the soft rot continues I will continue scraping the mush out, hosing it off, doing the sunlight treatment, and then I will also coat the infected area with SoftSoap right from the bottle. That works as well as anything for me, and if it doesn't stop it usually nothing will. Of course, one advantage I have is that they are already in pots so there's no problem with getting them to sunlight. And I have dug some out of the ground to treat them the same way when I have a problem with something I really value. Otherwise I just scrape off the goo, expose the infected part to the air and then go to town with the SoftSoap.

I just left them and ignorned them. Either they perk up on their own or they die. If they die I have empty spots to plant new ones. I figgure if they rot they are not strong doers.

I believe the product Dee uses is 'agrimycin', an antibiotic used in the treatment of farm animals as well as some plants. It is available on the internet but you may want to check with Dee before ordering it.