Iris's have never bloomed in 3 years

by Vonnie
(Tennessee)

The same rhizomes were planted at same time. The ones in my soft mulch bed at the corner of my house bloom abundantly. The ones planted with my neighbors row of rhizomes, have never bloomed. They are competing with grass, so one year I dug out the grass and fertilized, they still didn't bloom, and now grass is back along with them. They weren't planted deep either. What should I do to get them to bloom? Create a bed/row bed for them? Do I have to dig them up and till? I was hoping for an easier solution. Sincerely, in Tennessee

Doug says that an iris is a pretty tough plant that normally blooms its head off given half a chance. There are indeed several options here. First - you say they aren't planted deep. If you can't see the corm, they're too deep.

Second - if the divisions were small, and you abused them without feeding and with heavy grass competition, they may be struggling to grow up and get enough energy to bloom. It doesn't normally take that long to get a division to bloom size - you've abused them.

Third - garden soil is so variable that what you have in one section of your garden may or may not have much to do with the soil in another. If the soil in your grassy garden is poor or clay, then it needs to be improved.

The bottom line here is that without actually seeing the plant and garden location, (sun, clay, ???) I can't tell you what's wrong. I can tell you that you've stressed it so that it's not growing properly.

If you want a plant to bloom, you really want to give it the optimum conditions. There is no magic solution to great soil, full sun, weed-free conditions for growing iris flowers. Oh wait - yes, those might be them. :-)

Good luck.