Bad, bad news. It looks as though the single new increases that bloomed this year were the last gasp for most of my irises. I dug some up to investigate the problem further and found that they have no roots. None! Worse yet, every place I dug revealed whole huge colonies of ants, earwigs, and sow bugs. It seems incredible that I should have so many earwigs and sow bugs during a drought, but I suppose it's a matter of natural balance. I have no garden spiders this year, and the drought also killed off many predator insects that probably had been keeping the earwig and sow bug populations at a more reasonable size in past years.

Zulu, you can try white corn meal to kill the sow bugs. I read an article in one of my garden magazines many years ago this will kill sow bugs. I tried it and it worked.

Zulu, I've grown iris in irrigated beds with roses and perennials, and they all seem to play nicely together.
Pill bugs normally eat rotting, decomposing tissue, unless they're crowded and hungry, then they'll go after healthy tissue. But I wonder if you're looking at the mother rhizome? They'll lose their roots as the offshoots take hold.
I think in my garden, where I'm not as successful as I'd like, it's because I need more nutrients. I use a lot of wood chips, and the can rob the soil of nutrients. I'm going to be trying alfalfa pellets this year, or maybe some chicken manure.

Why is everyone suddenly calling me Zulu?

Phillip, I would hesitate to use cornmeal anywhere in my garden because it would act as a pre-emergent and wipe out all of the wildflowers that would be coming up in the next few months.

Sherry, in most cases I'm looking at the only rhizome that's left. That's why I said the blooms this year were the last gasp. I'm now wondering whether I was wrong to blame the gophers. Could the rhizomes have been nibbled by those earwigs and sow bugs? I've often heard that they eat only decayed plant tissue, but tell that to my poor clematises and hostas, which regularly provide feasts for the sow bugs and earwigs unless I stay extra watchful in spring and surround the clematises and hostas with traps. They're more voracious than the snails in my garden.

Zuzu, (a.k.a. Zulu) during hot dry summers here I have to be very watchful of bugs eating the healthy roots of my irises. two or three years ago I had a new insect - a little round, black beetle - and even though it only lived during the early summer months it did a lot of damage before I dug up my irises and found it on the roots. I have kept a watchful eye out and think this black beetle is cyclical because I now find a few each year. Just something new to worry about.

Be sure to check the acidity of the soil in the affected areas. Irises don't like it very acidic and tree leaves are often just that. That could also upset the balance of all those critters, some of which may like the more acid soil. Ground limestone should help if that is an issue. It can be, and is, very frustrating for sure.

Zuzu - they were in a "Time warp" if you will.

Thanks, Dave. I will do that. I have a lot of hardwoods here and mountains of leaves.

The irises don't seem to mind our soil about 6.5. The Siberians are fond of it, naturally.

Sorry Zuzu... I know what your name is.. I must have indeed been a time warp... either that or the Borg have got me..

: sorry Zuzu

zuzu said:Why is everyone suddenly calling me Zulu?

In spring I was invaded by hoards of earwigs too! They were chewing all the new growth off of the irises. At night I would go out with a flashlight and see the irises leaves covered with them. I set out some used cooking oil traps for them.

I used empty humus/salsa containers and buried the containers so the top rim was level of the soil. Then I put some cooking oil into each container. The traps caught a few slugs too!

Some of your irises may come back and surprise you. They may have been storing all their energy for a bloom. Now that it bloomed, the energy will (hopefully) be reserved for new growth. However, I've had a few that have bloomed and they decided that's all they were going to do. It's hard to say how a plant will respond with the stress of our drought and hot summers.

If I have any irises you want, let me know and I'll check on them after spring.

Odd, for some reason I feel like I want to go watch Shaka Zulu.

I actually have Shaka Zulu on tape and I watch the whole thing every couple of years.

Thanks so much for the offer of irises, Rob, but I'm hesitant to get any more if there's a chance that they're being gobbled by gophers or earwigs or something else.

Ok... had to google Shaka Zulu..