The Garden Life: Iris should be divided to keep them looking stately

Gardeners love the stately iris, immortalized in the classic design of the “fleur de lis.” The distinct shape of the flower is used in garden ornament all over the world. The Japanese and bearded irises are two of the most popular garden forms. After flowering, if the rhizomes have stopped producing abundant flowers and have become congested, it’s time to divide and replant border irises. Before you take the iris out of the ground, have a good look at the planting depth of those irises that bloomed best in your garden.

Most iris flower best when their rhizomes are planted level with the planting surface or even a bit above ground level. Using a large garden fork, you simply push the tines deeply into the soil beside the plant, press the handle of the fork down towards the ground (away from the iris) and lift the clump from the ground. Once out of the ground, wash off the roots. As I learned from my neighbor, Murphy Dennis, it is obvious which part of the root is healthy and which parts have lost their vigor. Cut away and discard the oldest parts of the rooty rhizome.

The piece you will replant should be 4 to 6 inches long with well-developed roots and healthy leaves. Trim the leaves down to about 2 to 3 inches long to reduce water loss. Replant the pieces on a slight ridge of soil, covering the roots with soil but leaving the tops exposed. Remember the planting depth from before. Water in well and wait. You will have a crop of fresh new iris plants early next summer.

Time for fall crops

As long as you can guarantee a good supply of water and nutrients to the vegetable garden you can add a new crop of lettuce and spinach as well as cauliflower and broccoli for this year’s fall harvest in the vegetable garden. Try a mixed planting of leafy vegetables in an array of colors and leaf textures that will “wow” garden visitors and dinner guests alike. Don’t forget that you can add nasturtiums to the salad for a peppery bite.

Summer catalogs entice us to buy more and more varieties of vegetables for the garden. I’ve shared a similar list before but still get a kick out of the diverse adjectives used to describe the texture and taste of readily available leaf lettuces: crisp, buttery, delicate, sharp, pale green, dark red, mottled, wavy, tart, chicory, ruffled, well-wrapped, crinkly, mild, bitter-free, piquant, sweet, tender, smooth leafed, tasty and of course, delicious.

Many gardeners would like to add vines to their gardens but feel unsure about their growing habits and the long term effect on houses and other garden structures. Different vines cling and climb by different means. Some vines such as the Boston ivies (Parthenocissus ssp.) are self supporting, producing suckers that cling, and even emitting a glue-like substance to assure they hold fast. Clematis and honeysuckle use tendrils to wrap around a support and hold the plant in place. These may become tangled but rarely cause damage to a structure.

English ivy, listed as Hedera helix, climbs almost any vertical surface by aerial rootlets. These rootlets bury their way into cracks in siding and destroy most painted surfaces. English ivy is extremely invasive and should not be planted in the Northwest garden. Those who do plant English ivy soon revile its overwhelming, aggressive tendencies. Once it engulfs your home and garden it will climb your neighbor’s fence and take over their garden as well.

Although we envision a cottage garden with rambling, wall climbing vines, most vines look best when trained and pruned to some degree. Keep this in mind if you are planting a vine in a highly visible part of your garden or an area designed for all year interest. The honeysuckle (Lonicera ssp.), so exquisite in bloom and scent, can grow into a gnarled version of Medusa’s head in winter. These plants are worth growing but need to be strategically placed in the garden. Plant them on strong supports at the back of perennial borders and well off to the side of garden paths and walkways.

Keep the identification tags that come with your vines. The tags that come on clematis tell you which pruning group they fall into and when they need to be pruned. If you’ve lost your tags you will need to monitor the plant through the year to see when each variety blooms. If your clematis is a spring bloomer that flowers on the previous year’s growth, cut your vine back a month after flowering. Summer and fall-blooming clematis bloom on wood produced in the spring of this growing season. Cut back in late fall after flowering or early next spring as buds swell.