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Iris Katharine Hodgkin

Gold1locksGold1locks Posts: 498

The RHS advice is to divide these in early autumn, but by then the leaves have long gone and I am never sure where they are. Can I lift them earlier, like at the end of May, when I can still locate them, and dry / store the bulbs like I would with daffodils? 

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  • Freesia2Freesia2 Posts: 1

    Reading Gardener's World mag from last April, Adam Pascoe says to lift and divide them as soon as they have flowered. Cut the leaves back to around a third of their length to stop the plant rocking in the wind.

  • Gold1locksGold1locks Posts: 498

    Thanks Freesia. Was the article referring to early bulb irises like Katherine Hodgkin or to later rhizome irises? I know that's the right advice for the latter.  

  • SwissSueSwissSue Posts: 1,447

    Oops, I looked a the title and thought, who the heck is Iris Katharine Hodgkin!imageimage

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    Sue image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • jo4eyesjo4eyes Posts: 2,058

    Gold1locks- any tips of how to establish these small irises?

    2x now have tried with different varieties- dry tubers & 'in the green' & neither reappeared the following spring. We do have a large number of squirrels, but they tend to go for the crocus & small red tulips. J.

  • Gold1locksGold1locks Posts: 498

    Mine have been in for years and are spreading by division. I read somewhere that they can be fairly shortlived but not in my garden! We have no squirrels around here, mind (thank goodness! I fought a running battle with hoards of them in the past, and could tell you some funny stories about it. I 'sort of' won in the end, but they were forever trying to regain the initiative. 

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    Iris K. Hodgkin is not like a lot of the other dawrf Spring flowering Iris (reticulata species and forms), it makes nice clumps and spread well.  It obviously does grow well from dried bulbs, hence the millions on sale in Autumn.  I would want to wait untiil the leaves had gone before I dug them up though. Possibly oonce they have begun to go yellow might be ok. Otherwise, why not take up the clump and put it in a pot until they have died down, at least them you know where they are.

  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307

    This tine font is very hard to use and check the spelling as one goes along.

  • Gold1locksGold1locks Posts: 498

    Thanks, Berghill.  I'll stick a label in the middle of a clump for now. 

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    A friend dug up some of his clump whilst they were in flower and gave them to me. I've got them in a pot to plant later. I haven't examined them but had assumed they would be rhizomes like the bearded iris but on a smaller scale. Are they in fact bulbs that I might dry off? They haven't died back yet.



    In the sticks near Peterborough
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