When my Grandmother past away, my dad and his sister were over at Grandmama and Granddaddy’s house cleaning out the place of her belongs. As we were locking the doors up to the house and about to drive off, I grabbed my shovel and went to the left side of her home. There were a few clumps of fern, hosta and iris. These must have been her three favorite plants. I believe she transplanted these from their home in Mount Holly, North Carolina.
My grandparents got so much joy from seeing their gardening efforts thriving. My grandmother would play “name that plant” with me as a child and I’ll never forget those times. I thought she knew the names to them all!
I loaded the three small clumps of fern, hosta and iris into the back of my Tahoe and brought them back home. I spend some time dividing each into smaller plants, and was successful in planting about 50-60 iris bulbs from her one clump. I had them in the raised garden bed, which I dubbed “rehab” for plants. They nursed back to health for about a year. This fall, I transplanted them over to two larger spaces in my landscape where I spaced them about 10-12 inches apart and in about 5-6 rows 8-10″ apart.
When spring rolled around, I was shocked at their color. Grandmama loved my favorite color of iris! WOW. Check out the deep purple color of this one.
Basic Steps To Divide Bearded Iris:
- Dig a large hole around your clump of Bearded Iris and gently pull the roots up.
- Wash the soil off with a hose.
- Cut the rhizomes apart so each section has at least one healthy fan of leaves and firm, white roots.
- Re-plant in different parts of the garden, making sure to leave the the newly-transplanted rhizomes partially exposed, with plenty of room to grow.
