Lucy, I see two, tiny green shoots coming from the underside of the rhizome.....so, I'm HOPING that it makes it ! Several others that I *thought* were completely rotted are doing the same thing, so.....maybe!

Buccaneer's Prize. Have thought several times over the two years since planting it was gone and it continues to hang in there. Photograph is from yesterday.

I will give a reminder here in a few months.

Arlyn, it isn't the fastest grower, but dainty flower. Not even our pumilas are doing very much here. But then it is March & we never see much action until April.

Last year, the first reticulate bloomed on March 26th, this year it was March 16th..10 days earlier....my "earliest" bearded (also a pumila...I think!) bloomed on April 12 th, and I'm thinking , from the way the plant looks, it will be earlier than last year, as well. What really gives me pause, though, is that last year, things were almost two weeks earlier than they were in '14, and '13 ! And, last fall, the rebloomers went almost three weeks longer than ever before, before a freeze stopped them......my season is getting longer, and longer....with less "down time" between *finish* and *start*......could this be a factor in my "goner" problem ?

That's the problem Arlyn, there are just so many variables that it's hard to know what is causing the issues.

Arlyn, how awful! I'm sorry to hear about the rot that is devastating your plants.

Yesterday, I marked out an area (actually two), and sprayed roundup to kill the grass...when it's dead, I'll till it ,and rake out the dead *sods*, and then I'll have a "temporary" iris bed (and a "dedicated" bed for the AB's). Once that's done, I'm going to start moving some plants (the ones that, obviously, aren't going to bloom this year, and , after the others bloom, they will be moved into it, as well. That will *empty out* the "most affected" bed, so I can try *solarization*.......

Sounds like a good plan, Arlyn.

Okay - I need advise from all of you. My second bloom of Little Stitches opened and half the flower was eaten. I opened the flower up, and there inside was a little pink worm, which for all the world looked like an iris borer to me. I have checked the rest of the plant and it is solid. No streaked or marked leaves. Just one hole at the base of the bud. So my question is how the world did it get there? This is a brand new bed, with all new soil, and a brand new rhizome sent early last September. All the rhizomes in this entire bed are newly planted. This one is surrounded by rhizomes from vendors.

Furthermore, I do not live in a region where borers are common.

So did the egg/s come in on one of the new iris rhizomes?

Should I dig it up?

I don't see any streaked leaves, or yellowing middle leaves, or nibbled edges on any of my iris. I have seen two iris borers ever before this. Both came in rhizomes I got from trade boxes, and both were found while the iris was still potted, not planted.

I don't know how to advise, Leslie. That is scary. Isn't it early for the borers? Do they eat the blossoms? I always heard they enter the leaves, travel down inside them and go through the rhizome. Can you position yourself where the iris is between you and the sunlight and look through the leaves for dark spots? Or hold a bright flashlight against it so you can see inside? My only thought is to capture the worm and hustle right down to the County Extension Office and freak out!

I don't think an iris borer at this time of the year would be any more then a tiny mite of a thing, and I've never seen one in a bloom. Take a picture of it and send it to a university for identification.

Well the worm that was nestled right in the base of the bloom has been squished. And it was already big and fat, but only less than an inch long.

I would think it is very early for one to be so large???

Leslie Iris borers usually do their damage to the rhizome of the plant and late in the season. I would guess that if you have a worm in the flower it is something else. You could check the plant leaves to see if there is any indication of iris borer activity. They tunnel down the leaves to reach the rhizome. They can be squished inside the leaves to kill them. Yucky, but effective.

I treat the iris beds here with Bayer Grub control on the early spring to help stop the pests.

Good luck!

Needless to say, now that it has finally quit raining, I will be spraying the garden with Bayer grub killer.

I should add, I treat my gardens every year with grub killer, because there are grubs in the yard.

The leaves are all really nice. I was surprised to see it in the flower. I have been reading up on borers and some of the literature says they will eat the flowers on their journey to the rhizome, but this guy is large for the season. Do they grow fast? We have had spells of really warm weather and he could have started early.

Also, I never saw any eggs on the leaves and I have been fussing in the gardens for weeks now.

If he was fat maybe he was too big to tunnel down the leaves.?. I don't know but it is scary.

Whatever it is (was), a dose of the Bayer will take care of them. The *active* in their "Long Season Grub Control" is a systemic....so, whatever takes a bite (or gets the pollen....like the honey bees) is going to die.
The iris borer has an interesting life cycle, and, when the egg hatches, the little b******s eat fast and grow quickly ! It's too early, here, for them to be around, but, I'm not sure about where you live. I think it's all related to soil temperature.....at the correct" time, the adult moth comes out of the soil, flies to an iris leaf, and lays his (her !) egg. Then the little worm starts his way down the iris, eating, and growing, as he goes (they are canibalistic, so, they eat any of their little brothers and sisters that are on that same plant !....survival of the fittest !)and, when he reaches the rhizome , and has eaten his fill, he crawls into the soil, pupates, and the cycle starts again. It is possible that an egg....or even a borer....was hitching a ride on a shipped in plant, but, I would think it more likely that, if it WAS an iris borer, he was "locally grown".