Rita, I forgot the part where I'm digging up over 75 iris to give away that already have designated homes, and the other half of the newbies will be added rhizomes to existing plants. You see, almost all of my plants never get anywhere near the size of yours because of my soil and my fear of overfertilization and soft rot in our heat. I have to use the mulch in this one large bed to keep everything from frying in the summer sun and to enable me to water there only every other day. That's the only bed that is really stressed -- and wouldn't you know it's the one where I have all my new expensive iris! But the summer mulch works pretty well, and I try keep it a couple of inches away from each rhizome. By Sept. the sun won't be directly overhead anymore, so I can remove the mulch -- and away I go!
