water iris

[haver79]

Should I treat my water iris like I would regular iris and cut down the flower stocks. It is done flowering and making seed pods? Not looking as good now. I assume it is spending energy trying to make seeds???

 

[addy1]

I tend to ignore mine, they bloom great and are spreading out pond and land. Did not even know you were supposed to remove seed pods.

 

[CountryEscape]

I would guess they are like daffodils, crocus, tulips, and so forth, but could be wrong. If they are like the other bulb plants, you need to leave the tops until they die back, as that is what feeds the roots. I know the others are bulbs, and lilies are tubers so this may not be even remotely close. I never mess with mine either, just leave them, although they do look kinda yucky. I have enough other stuff in the way to hide them, I guess.

 

[haver79]

No need to fertilize either?

Also is it ok to put curly rush in the pond bare root? I had a small one busting roots out of the top of the pot so I just stuck it in among some rocks.

 

[CountryEscape]

I have the curly rush in my bog, bare root, in pea gravel. I think it will grow as long as it is in the water. The way I do it, if I have several plants, I put them in different locations as far as sun, depth of water, flow of water, etc. and see which does best. Sometimes the movement of a waterfall or stream is best, others don't like the moving water, but want deeper planting depth, etc.
If you fertilize, be sure to use something that will stay in the gravel or dirt, whatever you have your iris in. You can use pond plant tablets, or another cheaper way is to use granular with the same numbers (i.e. 8-16-8 or whatever your plant needs). Wrap the granular stuff in a piece of paper towel, then shove it down into the pot or gravel. The paper towel will dissolve and allow the fertilizer to slow seep out to the plant. I know pond lilies are usually pretty heavy feeders, needing fertilizer once a month during the growing and blooming months, not sure about the iris. I'm sure it won't hurt!

 

[joesandy1822]

Are water iris much different than regular iris? Can I plant regular iris barefoot in the rocks around my pond?

 

[addy1]

I have put normal iris into the pond, they did fine, some will some won't just experiment!

 

[CountryEscape]

I think someone made a comment on this GPF that if the plant has the word "lily" in it, you can plant it in the pond, too. I have several irises in my bog, they do great.

 

[addy1]

My day lilies are doing great, in the bog. I had to remove a bunch, they were taking over. They are now planted along the fence.

 

[haver79]

I would think regular bearded iris types would rot if put into the pond. I have some I need to move. Maybe I will give one a try along the rocks.

 

[slakker]

We have Japanese iris in the bog attached to the pond and they are doing well. My wife did dead head the blooms. We think the foliage looks better without the flower stems...