Any chance of pesticide spray drift?

Are others in your area successful with bearded iris?

Are these iris rebloomers?

I'm in So Cal too, and I had that happen to my Ecstatic Echo. My mom's Ecstatic Echo from my plant did the same thing this year, so I thought it might be genetic.

Yes and Yes to your last two questions, iris_gal. Re: pesticides, I do use it on the roses but certainly not directly on the iris. I suppose there could have been some carryover to the iris but this would have been a very small amount. Another consideration is that _all_ of the iris plants are affected equally even those near the circumference of the quarter-circle, well away from the roses.

hosenemesis: do you see any common link between my experience and yours with the Ecstatic Echo?

Hi frangeb, did you see the new link about iris stems deforming and bending into an S or U shape? I am wondering if there isn't a disease that irises get... I'm going to do some research.
Renee

I presume you're talking about "Iris Blooms Committing Suicide" by sis1945. That note has drawn other contributions from eractuse2, terry94705 and cassieinmass who apparently have had similar experience. There doesn't seem to be any common thread. I'm in Long Beach, CA and the last rain here is just a legend. I thought that perhaps it's too dry here but today the humidity was 78%. That of course doesn't tell me what it was when the stem decided to take on the appearance of a croquet wicket. But it doesn't seem that water, either too little or too much, has anything to do with producing the bendy stems. My garden gets full sun and the soil is dry down at least 1 1/2 inch below the surface but the leaves of the plants are not withered (although they're not very tall, either) and the few blooms that occur are not distorted. There are 22 "hands" in the garden and this year I've gotten exactly two blossoms.

Anybody got any other ideas??

I've never heard of a disease causing this. I have seen rebloomers put out very short as well as bended stems. The commercial grower said weather conditions caused it some years.

I've also heard of tall beardeds not performing well in zone 10 in Florida. Not sure we've had anyone from L.B. area on this forum before. Keep us posted on how your other iris perform. It would be good to have a list of those behaving this way in zone 10.

I think the iris season in Long Beach is over and to show for the season I got exactly two blooms both of which had deformed stems as previously noted. I don't expect any more iris activity but if it occurs I will promptly post the fact in this forum and if I should get an undistorted bloom I'll also SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS

Have you tried watering them?

??!! Yes. Regularly.

frangeb, I don't think people in some other zones have to water their gardens. At least they don't have to water year round like we do.
Renee

You're right! I should have thought of that! I lived for many years in St. Louis where if water is a problem it's because there's too much of it. Iris does very well in St. Louis. One spontaneously seeded itself under a disabled car in my sister's back yard last year and this year it bloomed!

Did you check for iris borers? Do you use mulch?

Err, 9 years later, the iris have either recovered or died totally. Might want to check dates before replying.

I got a new comment yesterday, so ppl are still reading this thread, including you. But thanks for your snark. Hope it helped you to feel better about yourself.

I feel fine, thanks for asking...we don't really need to resurrect such old threads.

Reading the thread again, no one had mentioned borers, or mulch, so I did. My comment might help someone in future. Your comments, on the other hand...

But I bet iris borer is mentioned in at least a hundred old threads...doesn't really need to be in 'every' old thread. From that POV, it's not new knowledge.

Edit: I did the search, 225 of them.

One thing even less necessary than another borer comment, is a response comment saying don't comment on borers anymore, as there are 225 borer comments and that's enough for everybody.

For someone who is adamant about not resurrecting old threads, you sure are keeping this old thread alive, dbarrron. With your quickly posted and dependable comments, describing how we don't need anymore comments. Ironic, isnt it?

I have help...thanks HappyDayHey!