Iris bulbs care help

[birdieb]

I am new to this group so I want to thank you for letting me in. It is very interesting to read your answers to plant problems. Quite a few ingenious solutions have surfaced. I live in Southern France (100 kms South from Grenoble) in the valley. Nice to meet you, everyone! Happy New Year! And a big thank you for your help so far.

Needless to say I am a newbie to gardening too. To enter the subject, I

bought 2 days ago 5 Iris rhyzomes in a soil that went completely dry 3 hours after watering - in tiny pots, 4 cm in diameter. Most of them had

leaves. Even after replanting in turf they don't seem to do much better: the leaves keep going yellow. I make sure they don't have too much water. Can I do anythign else to help them?

They are maybe 10 cm away from the first heater pipe, it is not hot though since they are in the window. Any ideas?

Sincerely, Alexandra C

[David Ross]

Rhizome iris are quite hardy, to 10°F (-12°C) or even lower. Thus, they can be planted outdoors. Where I live (rarely reaching even

32°F (0°C)), they are planted with the top of the rhizome at the surface of the soil or slightly above the soil. Where the soil freezes, they might have to be planted deeper; they might also have to have some winter protection. (In the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, they cover the iris beds with cut branches of various conifers.)

Putting outdoor plants by a window indoors sometimes gives them too much sun. The light is okay, but the heat of the sun is too much. My indoor plants are at a north window. Since my house is not quite square on the compass, the window gets some morning sun in the summer. Then, I cover the window with shade cloth.

[birdieb]

I would plant them outdoors but I have no garden. I live in a flat. Thank you for your advice with the sun. My amaryllis faded last summer and now I can see why.

[Mel M Kelly]

If you live in a flat and no garden you got the wrong plants to start with.

From Mel & Donnie in Bluebird Valley