Ask the Expert: Why wont my Iris bloom?
My Iris’ get great green leaves but I fail to get a bud, which in turn I don’t get a bloom?
Mary Ann
Iris Refuses To Bloom – A Deep Resentment.
May 6, 2008 by
Find Your Local Florist:Everything you want to know about flowers!
Well… perhaps I was a bit hasty, and actually I missed a whole large bed. I’m ashamed of myself now, because that bed is in FULL BLOOM now! I imagine that had I not gone on a tirade, the others would have also bloomed. I think it was weather-related. We did have a decent winter with good early spring rain. Apparently that was all they needed. The ones blooming now are a cultivar that I produced as an experiment. They’re a lovely moderately fragrant blue-violet bi-tone with golden yellow beards and purple veining on the haft, soft lavender with golden yellow shading under the style arm, a soft open blossom similar in structure to some of the historic types… and profuse blooms, 5-7 buds per stalk. The one “con” is that the stalks are not as sturdy as many of the newer varieties so they do have “the leans” as was common with older varieties on more slender stalks. I also have “Chasing Rainbows in that bed, as well as some random Standard Dwarf Bearded… rich red-purple with blue beards, lavender-blue shading on the haft and under the style lip, lightly fragrant. The SDB have already come and gone, as they’re very early… the Chasing Rainbows and my new cultivar (tentatively named ‘Grace and Blessings’) are just getting going. I have noted that Chasing Rainbows is throwing shorter stalks than usual this year. We did have a rather late freeze/frost, but not hard enough to thwart blooms altogether… just enough to shorten the stems on a few, but otherwise they’re lovely.
Damn, if I had just waited 2 weeks…
14 years ago we purchase brown and purple beared iris at Chelsea planted close brown flower year after you purple have never had a flower lots of green full sun south faceing not deep any ideas thanks lorna
Lorna,
Is it possible that the Iris are overcrowded? This may seem strange since the brown have always flowered, but you may try moving some of the purple to see if it helps.