My Bearded Irises got Borer-ed!

Like my yard art? Our friend Lendard made it out of car parts

When we moved into our home several years ago, I inherited several gardens. One of my favorites is along the fence line in our back yard and has beautiful Irises and Lilly’s in it. It’s one of my favorites because I can see it from the kitchen sink when I do dishes and when it’s in full bloom it’s AMAZING. I really didn’t know much about Irises I just leave them be and let them do their thing. Well a couple of weeks ago my future Father-in-law (Mark) stopped by our home and I was showing off my Irises when he explained to me I have Iris Borers. I didn’t realize what this meant at the time but he instructed me to let them finish their bloom season and then I should dig them up and take a look. So since the garage is STILL not done and I can’t work on the Bus yet, that is what I did this weekend and let me tell you I learned all there is to know about Irises this weekend. And since us gardeners LOVE to share our knowledge, I thought I’d pass this information along…

How to tell you have Iris Borers 

 

Well to the untrained eye you may not notice until it’s too late, but once you know what to look for it’s pretty easy. In the early stages, the Irises get streaks on their leaves that look something like this. See that darker streak in the middle of the leaves? That is the first sign of a problem.

 

 

 

What to do if you have Iris Borers

This is the part that sucks, the only way to get rid of them is to dig them up and cut off the part of the rhizome that has been infected. You can cut up to 75% off and they will still continue to grow. Unfortunately for me, most of my borers where at the base of the leaves and I couldn’t do this.

Once you cut off the area the borers were at, or if they are just un-savable (like 80% of mine were), THROW THEM AWAY! Do not compost them; put them in a trash bag and right into the garbage bin! The best course of action is to get them out of your yard and as far away from your Irises as possible.

How to treat you remaining Irises

Once all the Irises are dug up and the borers are gone, trim the leaves of the Irises to about 6 inches then soak the rhizomes in a mix of 10% bleach to water for about an hour. After soaking, lay them out in a dry sunny area. Give them a few days to dry before replanting. If you plant too soon they may rot.

 

So here’s my really sad news for me, because the infestation was so bad, it was recommended to me to move them, so my beautiful fence garden will be just a few day lily’s that still are beautiful and are in bloom now (everything in my yard blooms about 3 weeks behind everyone else’s for some reason…) but there is a big empty hole where the Irises were and it makes me sad.

 

Planting Irises

When planting Irises you want to plant in well-drained soil in a sunny location (at least 6 hours of sun). Now I’ve read some sites that say they can’t be in shade or they won’t bloom, but if you know my yard, it’s like 99.9% shade. My Irises were in a mainly sunny location but some had been pushed into the shade of our backyard tree most of the day and they seemed to do just fine there as far as blooming is concerned. The next important thing about planning the rhizome is to not fully cover it; they like a little sun to help keep them dry and from rotting.

 Before I plant anything in my garden I get out my handy dandy tonic book to see if I could find something to help whatever I am growing to grow faster and stronger. This book has been an amazing asset to me.

It’s called Jerry Bakers Terrific Garden Tonics. If you don’t have this book I HIGHLY recommend it especially for newbie gardeners like me! If you look around online you may find a good deal on it, I picked up my copy for like $4 on half.com. In this book he lists a tonic for just about everything. There is a tonic for getting Irises a good start - ½ cup of beer, Vit B₁ plant starter (mixed at 25% of the recommended rate) 2 TBL dishwashing liquid, in 1 gal of water. Use this mixture to saturate the soil after planting. He has some other tips about yearly fertilizing to but I don’t want to give too much way.

Prevention

Lastly as far as prevention goes, trim the leaves of the Irises after the first good hard frost and keep any debris cleared of them and don’t mulch them. (Don’t make it look too cozy for borers to decide to make them a home). It’s also a good idea to dig-up and split them about every 3 years so if they do become invested you can prevent too much damage.

 

So that about sums up what I’ve learned about Irises this last week. I don’t know if there is much more to it than that but if you have any advice I’d love to hear it.