Moving this down the list.
Renee

Renee I enjoyed your very sharp Iris pictures. Although not a particular fan of the Iris it stirs memories of Iris lovers in my past. Olive Waters of Pacific Horticulture and Joe Ghio of Santa Cruz where I lived for 40 years. Thanks for sharing. Al

Your irises always get me excited and hopeful about my own. Some were attacked by borers, the new rhizomes I've been planting since October are slowly sending up new leaves. Some I've just potted up while I rework the beds. They say not to mulch iris, but mine is surrounded by oxalis and I'm really tired of pulling and tempted to just mulch. What are the little white flowers surrounding your iris in the photos? I put creeping daisy next to my Gypsy Romance and Creeping Jenny in front of my Mother Nature iris. Maybe I made poor choices there.

I think you can mulch some, it's just that it is easier for the bacterial rot to take hold if the mulch is right up on top of the rhizomes. We don't have the iris borer in Southern California- are you sure you didn't get slugs or maggots? Maggots love rotted rhizomes.

The little white flowers are annual Paludosum Daisies. I think your irises will be fine with the daisies and creeping jenny. Gypsy Romance is one of my favorite irises! Do you have any new ones coming up now that you have never seen bloom. gardentantrum?

I didn't see any slugs, but the leaves were browning from top-down and vice versa. The rhizomes were somewhat squishy and though I didn't see anything other than pill bugs and grubs, I just sorta assumed they were goners and borers was what someone told me. Maybe I watered too often. Gypsy Romance hasn't bloomed yet as they're only a couple months in. My other bearded iris and butterfly iris haven't bloomed since May so I tore off all the lantana that I allowed to creep in from under my neighbor's fence 3 months ago. It practically engulfed them. I'm still pulling large woody roots from underneath rhizomes. They're just now discovering that they have a lot more room now and are just popping out from the ground with new leaves. I am trying to give them a cleaner, more hospitable environment, so hopefully I fiiiiinally get blooms soon.

Also, more rain on Thursday, says the forecast. I still have some Wench iris potted up from when I exterminated the lantana(I found more big roots underneath these) Is it too late to put them in the ground? I've been so busy lately that I haven't been keeping up with my iris beds. Transplanting more creeping daisies and direct-sowing the rest of the annuals before the rain, hopefully.

You can plant irises at any time in Southern California. Too much water is the main foe of irises- they get bacterial rot. Pill bugs and earwigs will eat them too. Just pull off the ugly leaves and try to keep them uncovered so the bugs don't have a nice place to munch. I plant mine on mounds in mixed borders, and that seems to help.

Definitely earwigs. They're everywhere. Even in the iris beds. I will plant them in mounds too, I hope it'll help with things eating the rhizomes. Thank you, Renee :) when my garden grows up it hopes to look more like yours ;)

Never mind, I found two slugs in the iris beds and more rot. So frustrating.

The worst part is that the chickens won't eat any of those three bugs. They taste too icky.
Renee