September 26, 2019
Fall Planting- Planting Pacific Coast Irises
Fall Planting-Planting Pacific Coast Irises, Bob Sussman9/26
We waited and waited and waited the temps have dropped and now is my chance to plant some pacific coast irises in my front garden. Now the work starts. The area that I want to plant is under an oak tree with lots of oak leaf littler, a perfect place but a mess. Before you plant clean out the summer weeds and trim back the shrubs.
Yes, right now it’s a mess and I”m sure I’ll hear from our HOA.
Next I pulled weeds and cut back shrubs- dug out grasses in places that I didn’t want them. Before you go crazy with the shovel not pipes and green boxes. You don’t want to dig anywhere near. No problem still plenty of space.
Now it’s time to dig the holes, for pacific coast irises dig to a depth such that they’re slightly elevated. I also toss about 1 tbs of 15-15-15 fertilizer into the hole. Seems to help?
These are 3 Gallon pots. Most of our 1-gallon pots won’t be ready for a few weeks and they are ready rooted and nice size. They’re also from one of our crosses. These are all ‘Dr. Richie’ x ‘Untitled’ seedlings. A few flowered last spring and were quite exceptional. They also all easily made it through summer. One to ask for.
Next I fill the holes up with water….
Let the water drain out and plant. Take the iris out of the pot without breaking the root ball just like a big jello mold. Then place it into the hole and cover in around the sides. Compress down gently with your shoe and water.
You’re done and it should look like this….
I mentioned above that we used irises from one of our ‘Dr. Richie’ x ‘Untitled’ cross from a couple of years ago. These have proven to be exceptional growers at least here in warm inland California (Moorpark, Ca). Most didn’t bloom last year but some did. They were all really nice. Here’s one of them. ….
And there are more “at home like this” and waiting for your garden!
