Over Wintering Irises

snipped-for-privacy@peoplepc.com (Sue D) expounded:

They'd be much better off in the ground, isn't there somewhere you can just heel them in for the time being?

All depends on what type iris your talking about if it likes wet feet or not. All of my Iris have been planted for years with 6 inches of water or more above their crowns..........they love wet feet and being submerged. They are Louisiana variety........As far as I can tell all varieties of Iris with the exception of Bearded types like wetfeet......and its this reason they are so popular in bog and water gardens. Visit my website:

The best thing she can do is to put them in Pots for the winter, this should keep them alive and growing. Then once they are ready to be planted put them in a new bed. This is IF they are the Tall Beaded Iris, if they are L.A. Iris then they should be taken inside and placed in something like a bucket of water and placed where they get a bit of light from a window.

Being zone 6 I would think they are TBI's, in that case as said above, pot them up and place them outside then.

"starlord" expounded:

I seriously doubt they'll make it if they're just potted up, they'll freeze solidly, thaw, etc. over and over and rot by the spring. Much better off to put them in the ground somewhere, not where they'll ultimately be, even in a shady corner, and then properly plant them in the spring.

And they can rot just as easy anywhere else. When I had to move all 300+ iris from one area to another I had to pot a lot of them up for the winter and then I put the pot 1/2 the way into the ground. Not only did I lose very few ( about 5 or 6 ) they still bloomed the next spring.

Many of the Iris growers I've chatted with will pot up new iris plants for their first winter and plant them only after the spring bloom time is past. And these are ones that sell iris too.

"starlord" expounded:

Where are these iris growers? Near you? You were discussing a person who is in zone 6, which is where I am. My experience (rather extensive, I might add) gardening for over 30 years in zone 6 tells me that you shouldn't pot up anything and leave it on top of the ground for the winter, without protection. Yes, you can pot them up and heel them *in* the ground, but you absolutely can't leave them exposed on top of the ground. You will have dead plants in the spring, or plants so damaged they never florish again.

Well, some are down south in NM and Tx, One hobby grower is up in Canada, some are in the north midwest, heck they are all over the place, even one or two out here in Calif.

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