Rule of thumb, divide your iris approximately every 3 years. I’ve never really paid attention to that. I usually just let them go. But I’ve never had as many irises as I do now. And this year was definitely a full bloom for most. So I went through the gardens and checked which ones were getting to big. They either didn’t bloom this spring; the are rebloomers that haven’t bloomed; or they were crowding another iris.
I divided several including: Mary Frances; Before the Storm; Earl of Essex; China Maid, and Saturday Night Live. I pulled up some overgrown sedum and found that my Florentina had died off this year (too much water). I moved a few that just didn’t look like they were in a good spot.
Dividing Siberian Iris
There are a couple of ways I divide iris and it depends on the type. When I go to my dad’s and need to divide the Siberian iris I planted over 30 years ago, I just take a shovel and chop right into it and pull up sections.
Dividing Bearded Iris
To divide bearded iris you want to trim back the leaves so you can see what the tuber looks like, but not completely down to the ground – leave about 4-6″ of growth. They grow kinda crazy. You can either divide them while they are still in the ground or dig the whole plant and then divide it.
You want to look for a natural separation in the tuber. They are fairly obvious. I took a couple of pictures of part of the Earl of Essex Tall Bearded Iris that I dug up. It was much larger than this and had gotten entangled with the Before the Storm Tall Bearded Iris – and thats why they needed to be divided.
This shows a main tuber and two offshoots. This can be divided into 3 plants if you wanted, or you can plant it the way it is.
This iris is divided and ready to plant. You don’t want to chop or cut into the tuber.
See, fairly easy to do.
Gallery
I’m including a very large gallery of images. These are pictures of all of the different kinds of iris that I had blooming this year. This includes Bearded Iris; Siberian Iris; Dwarf Iris; Dutch Iris; and Louisiana Iris. I looked back at all of the pictures and it really reminds my what to look forward to next spring.
