Last April I bought some Iris rhizomes at the Fullerton Arboretum 'Green Scene' (Mary Frances, and Carol's Yellow). I stored them in the bag during the summer. In August we left on vacation, during which time the temperatures rose to 100 here and the house probably turned into an oven. I kept them in the bag for the rest of the summer.

Last Thursday (1 week ago today) when it was still too hot to do any real gardening, I thought I'd better at least put them into some damp potting soil. One of them looked shriveled, one looked pretty tiny, and the other two seemed OK, but I put all 4 in a wide shallow bowl of moistened cactus mix, set the bowl in a cool spot beneath some plants in the shade on the north side of the house -- and hoped for the best.

Today, ALL FOUR BULBS have green leaves of various sizes. The first ones emerged on Monday or Tuesday (I'm a data geek and wish I recorded the actual days). One of them is just a tiny nub, while others are 2-3 inches tall already! In the next week or two, I'll transfer each one to its own pot before the roots become too entangled, and set them out in the garden later this month.

I was doing the happy dance this morning. My husband said 'Just add water'!.

It's starting to feel like Fall and I'm starting to get in the groove again.

Here's a photo I took this morning after I set the pot in morning sun for a few hours. The tiny one in the lower right has a nub barely visible in the photo; I tried to lift it, but it seems the roots have already taken hold so I am not giving up hope.

Please tell me if I need to add more soil on top of any of these; I'm new to Iris and know not to bury the rhizomes but I may have erred on the side of too shallow instead.