Hi,
If they were given to you and you have them now you should go ahead and plant them. I think that the idea behind planting in fall is so that the roots can get established and you can experience spring bloom. Your plants won't bloom this year in spring(but if they're rebloomers they might bloom in the fall--we planted Jennifer Rebecca, a rebloomer, in August a few years back, and it bloomed in October!)

Someone more knowledgable might correct if I'm wrong on any point above, but I think that's accurate.

Mike, Zone 8

Agree with Mike

Thanks. I'll just plant them in the Fall.

Are they in pots? If you have been given pots you can wait until fall if you like (although my choice would be to plant them now). If they are bare rhizomes, they will be 90% dead by fall. They might still grow, but they will spend a lot of time repairing themselves before they bloom.

I'd get them in the ground now. The earlier you plant them, the longer they'll have to become established before next winter, and the likelier they'll be to bloom next spring.

If you wait until fall to plant, the irises will have less time to establish root systems which may lead to death over their first winter and/or non-bloom next spring.

Laurie

My vote is to plant them (or pot them up) now too. if you hold on to them (as previously said) you'll be depriving them of the opportunity to thrive.

I'm in similar zone to you. I agree with plant them now or at least as early in the season as you can. If they have not been dug/divided yet you may want to wait until after they flower. I read somewhere to divide here 6-8 wks after bloom which is still early July.

I planted many divisions give to me last fall (Sept/Oct)and many barely survived the winter and I'm certainly not getting blooms this year, lucky to have leaves. I think I lost several all together- still not even the tiniest of leaves coming on.

In warmer climates I've always fall planted iris but I think here they need more time to get established before winter tries to do them in.