For a second season of blooms, it is important to remove spent iris flowers, leaving as much of the stem and foliage as possible. This will allow the remaining foliage to continue to grow until it wilts and turns yellow. During the summer months, when the bulbs are dormant, it is best to keep the soil fairly dry and irrigate every two weeks to keep the soil moist and prevent plants from going dormant. However, too much water can cause normal irises to rot, so it is recommended to keep reblooming lilies separate from standard irises.
Schreiner's Gardens offers a food for irises specially formulated to provide balanced nutrition in the flower garden.Resistant bulbs or bulbs that bloom in spring require a cold period to break their dormancy and begin the development of spring flowers. An advantage over the bearded iris, the English iris blooms later in the year and blooms in June and July. It is grown from a rhizome and is a mostly carefree garden staple, except for the dreaded iris borer caterpillar.
Types of Irises
The large bearded iris (from a rhizome, often called German iris), the bulbous iris (correctly, the Spanish or Dutch iris), the English iris, found in the Pyrenees; the beautiful and thin Siberian iris, and the Japanese iris, which looks similar to the Siberian iris, but has different requirements.The Dutch iris (Iris Hollandica) has orchid-like flowers with silky petals and blooms later than the bearded iris. The Siberian iris is still one of the easiest iris plants to grow; some flowerbeds continue to bloom for decades without any division or insecticide, forming a large stripe of blue, lavender, white or one of the new multicolored colors.