Creating Iris Bed

[mrtoad]

As I have posted before I am locating and collecting my grandmother’s historic irises. When I find them, I dig and place in my potager. I am making an iris bed four feet wide and up to twenty feet long. What should the spacing be between varieties and between the plants of the same variety? Thanks for all your help, Rdeal At this time I have about 80 plants that have not bloomed and eleven different colors.

[laurief]

It really depends on how often you want to have to dig and divide your irises, as well as the more immediate effect you want in the garden. If you want a fuller visual effect and you don't mind dividing every couple of years, you can plant them 12" apart. You will have to divide frequently, though, to prevent the clumps from overcrowding and growing into each other.

I prefer to plant TBs 18-24" apart so that I only have to divide every 3-4 yrs. This also gives the irises time to expand and mature so that they produce more bloomstalks per clump and a more impressive blooming display. The extra space between clumps also helps keep the foliage healthier.

Laurie

[Garden_of_Mu]

The size of the iris can make a difference in spacing as well. Smaller irises can be planted closer together than the the big tall beardeds - and many historics are much smaller than the huge modern TBs. For those that have yet to bloom it would be best to leave a nice wide space between them so individual clumps can be easily marked.

If planting a big patch of all the same variety I often leave just 8-10 inches between rhizomes so they fill in faster. Selectively thinning clumps by removing excess fans or outside ones getting too close to a neighbor can extend the time between digging and dividing in both mass plantings and small garden clumps.