Very nice! I bought several of these this year. I hope they will bloom next year.
Kathy

Chris, I have lots of JI also. Some of which are planted directly in the stream bed that flows into my pond. They love it there. Your's is a beauty.
Jan

Jan,

When you planted your JI, how close to the water's edge did you put them? My parents have a slow, shallow creek in their back yard, and I'd love to plant some Japanes irises for them, but I have no experience with them. Do you have any advice or tips so I don't invest some $$ then kill the irises off the first year?

Laurel

Laurel, mine are directly in the stream bed, right on the edge. I just anchored them with rocks and gravel and they are now huge clumps. They love it in the stream. They love to have their "feet" wet, so you could just plant them right on the edge of the creek I'm sure, if you don't want to actually put them in the creek.
Hope this helps.
Here is a photo of my stream so you can see the two large clumps of JI in the stream. They aren't blooming in this photo, but you can see how they are planted, I think.
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Jan

Wonderful! Perfect! Thanks Jan, I think I can do that with no trouble. I'll have to go check out Iris City Gardens for JIs again - I'm doing some garden makeover stuff for my parents' 40th anniversary while they're gone on a 15 day trip to Alaska. Whoohoo! While the cats are away the mouse will play - in the dirt, of course.

Laurel

Great pic Chris. I have not had much luck with JI. I put five I bought last year into a huge pot with really humusy, wet soil. Only one returned, no bloom and doesn't seem to be thriving. Should it be bare root in water? Just lay rocks on the roots in water rather than soil?
Nancy

I don't have a water source available, so I dug a deep hole and lined it with plastic (just a plastic garbage bag). I read somewhere it would help retain water at the plant's roots. Of course, I did that with all three and one is kaput.

Beautiful picture, Chris! I am planning to find some of the more "beautious" ones this fall! I have some basic ones, purple and white.

They don't have to grow in water. I will look, at some point, for a picture of mine (sorry, hundreds of unorganized pictures make for a nightmare when trying to find anything). My largest clump is no where near water. I don't tell them and they don't know.

I do have one with varigated foliage and it grows in a damp area, but it is not as robust as the non wet ones. Interesting. As our extension agent here says, "Plants don't read the literature."

Somewhere I also have a photo of large expanses of them near water at Lewis Ginter BG. Very lovely! Nice to find plants that will make do either way.

I have the variegated one growing in a bone dry area and like most of my iris, no blooms but great foliage. Can I plant them in my pond and get blooms. Would I plant them with the "crowns" (whatever they are called in irisland)just at water level? I keep saying I am going to move them to an area that gets lots of supplemental watering and somehow that task never makes it to the top of my list. If I can dig and put in the pond, that sounds like fun.

Brooke

Brooke, I had my JI planted next to my pond, but not where they would stay wet, and they just sat there, no blooms, no increase. I visited a local nursery that had a stream (man made) running through their display area, and they had the most beautiful JI planted directly in the stream. So I dug mine up rinsed off the roots and plopped them down in my stream. Boy did they take off!! Tons of blooms every year since. They aren't immersed in very deep water, only a few inches. Hope this helps.
Jan

Thanks Jan I do want to try them in my pond. I have a shelf on one side and can put them in a basket on the shelf but don't want to get them too deep. Is the base of the plant under water or just the tubers/roots/whatever they are (you can tell I'm a JI expert here). My JI's must be related to yours - planted in dirt, they grow and don't bloom.

Brooke

Brooke, they can go into the water above their "roots", mine did, but now that they have gotten so large, it's mainly their root systems in the water. An idea might be to try one in your pond and see how it does, then, if it does well, you'll know how to plant the others in your pond, as well. If I were going to plant them in a basket and submerge them, I would put a layer of gravel and heavy sand in the basket then add the JI, and anchor them in the basket with more gravel and sand.
Jan
Jan

I read on ensata.com that JIs can "suffocate" if their roots are submerged and frozen all winter. This doesn't make sense to me, since they're water-lovers hardy into zone 5 at least (and we're nothing if not FROZEN every winter!). I'm going to order a few inexpensive ones from Iris City Gardens to plant beside my parents' stream. I'll plant them just above the normal water line, anchor them with rocks, and hope for the best. Wish me luck!

Laurel

Sounds like I need to ponder this for a while. Jan certainly lives way south of me and probably doesn't get long term freezing temps. I do have to have a pond heater to keep the pond open for the fish. I will have to ask hubby if the heater can be on the side with the shelf OR I could lift the pond basket and iris and sink it into regular soil for the winter.

Best start pondering this subject - Brooke

Jan, You leave your JI in the water year round? Even during the winter, correct? Just making sure I understand. I don't have a water feature, but I might try planting mine in plastic tubs next year. I could sink the tubs so they wouldn't show and keep them full of water. Think that would work?
Kathy

Yes, my JI's are in the stream year round. My ponds do not freeze over here, and my pumps run all year. Never had a problem with my JI since planting directly in the stream. You could probably plant them in tubs that you sink in the ground, but your water will get stagnant unless you change it out often, etc. Some people create their own bog area by digging down a foot or so adding a pond liner then putting the soil back over the liner. I have a similar bog area where my large pond overflows when it rains, etc. You can plant your JI's and other water lovers in this bog area, and just keep it wet from a garden hose, etc.
I have a few JI's, some canna's and some Louisianna Iris, along with several other water loving plants, in my overflow bog area. When we don't get sufficient rain for the pond to overflow, I simply run a hose in it every few days. Hope this info helps some of you with your JI problems.
Jan