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Iris Reticulata. Gordon Fletcher
I bought the above bulbs in the Autumn and planted them in a terracotta pot about 5inches deep. They flowered and looked lovely, a deep purple colour. Is it worth keeping them for another year. I do this with many bulbs either keeping them fed and watered OR planting them into a border. However I'm sure I've read somewhere it's not worth keeping iris reticulata as they don't usually flower in future years. Any ideas comments
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Carol klien said they dont flower again in this country, something about them needing to be baked in the sun. I am going to put mine out in the garden, nothing lost is there, worth a try?
They do re-flower but gradually diminish for me. Some groups are down to one flower this year so that's probably the last I'll see of them
In the sticks near Peterborough
They last a few years for me, but as Nut said, they do gradually diminish - as Mike suggested, try placing them in a sunny spot and crossing your fingers
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Agree with nut. I keep mine, give them ahigh potash feed and then put the pots somwhere the bulbs can dry out, and hopefully bake. I have a few pots that have been going 3 or 4 years, but they do diminish over time.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Mine just keep coming back every year
Same as nut an pd,mine come back but they do diminish over time. I bought some last autumn and they have only just finished flowering - one pot is still looking good -and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. They are pretty inexpensive and easy to grow, and provide a beautiful display at the end of winter, so worth every penny when they need replacing.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks everyone, I wouldn't have thought about letting them bake so I'll give that a go. I have a tendency to think all bulbs are similar. I love Specie tulips, have a lovely crop of T. Turkestana ? Which I grow in terracotta pots, I let them dry out last year, and they are currently giving a good show with small white almost bell like flowers I know I'd lose them if I planted then in the garden whereas t Tarda does well.
The 'sun baking' is for the larger summer flowering types Bilje. They're rhizomes as opposed to bulbs, and are planted on the surface of the ground rather than being buried like a bulb is.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have just bought some lovely dwarf iris 'Katherine Hodgkins' from Dunham Massey, where they have them in their splendid winter garden. I have planted them in the garden - will they not flower again or is that just the taller irises that we are referring to here?
Some of mine are Katherine Hodgkin and these come back every year, planted in ordinary soil, not particularly well drained.