Hi, I am far from an expert but the same thing just happened too me. My aunt gave me a beautiful tall healthy bearded iris plant. I too planted in full sun shallowly and watched its deline. Watering was futile. So I began to think about its location at her house and it was part sun not 100% full blazing sun which is where I had placed it. So I put it in part sun now and it has fully recovered and is growing new beautiful foliage. Was the iris that you dug in 100% full sun or part? If it was in part or received shade at any point in the day I would try and replicate its original conditions. Hope this helps. Rena'

You can cut the foliage down to about 8" if it is flopping over. That foliage will mostly die off and after a while new leaves will emerge, nice and fresh. Don't overwater the plants- that will just rot the rhizomes. When they are ripped from the ground the existing foliage usually dies off, and once the roots start growing again new foliage will appear.

This is why many people wait until August or even September to plant rhizomes- so they don't have to look at iris stumps all summer!

Renee

i call it fanning them.. cut to 4 to 6 inches .... like a hand fan ..

you are supposed to do it on all dug/moved/divided iris ....

and though hosey waits til august.. you can divide your iris any time you want.. though most of us wait until the show is over ...

various pix at the link

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link