Now is the perfect time to revitalize your established iris bed

Q. I purchased a small home and in the backyard is a bed of iris. I watered and took care of the bed but didn’t get many flowers this spring. Can teach me how to get it rejuvenated! — L.I., Albuquerque

A. Your question couldn’t be better timed since this is the time of year to rework an established (3 years or older) planted bed of iris.

Here’s a list of the tools and amendments I think you should have on hand: pitchfork, shovel, rake, tarp, sharp pair of scissors, paper bag, a couple of cardboard beer flats, a pair of rubber gloves, a couple of bags of top soil, small bag of bone meal and small bag of “dusting sulfur.”

First, lay the tarp next to the iris bed. Using the pitchfork, lift the clumps of irises out of the bed onto the tarp. Try to leave as much of the soil behind in the bed but whatever collects can be poured back into the bed. Take the shovel and give the irisless bed a good turning. Dig down to a depth of at least 8 inches, deeper is okay, and really rough up the soil. As you turn, remove any debris.

Then spread the top soil over the space and turn it in, de-clumping the area. Once the top soil is turned in and no clumps are showing, take the rake and smooth the space. Give it a light spritz of water to settle it. Then sprinkle the bone meal over the area and rake the space again, barely turning the bone meal in and once again give the space a light spritz. Now it’s time to inspect the irises. Move the tarp to a shady spot. Rub off and wiggle apart all of the soil still connected to the iris. Keep any collected soil on the tarp. Now you should have irises that usually consist of three components: green strap leaves (and some dead ones too); a knobby light brown-white “foot” where the leaves connect; and, along the feet, long string-like roots. Naked knobby feet or anything that is stinky, squishy or yucky should be pitched. As you are separating the clumps you could see “pups” growing off a mom iris and they can be snapped away. Make sure the pup has all three components and you’ve instantly doubled your haul!

Separate the irises and cleanly cut away any dead leaves as close as you can and snip away any of the string roots that are damaged, squishy or all dried up. Give the green leaves a bit of a haircut too. Cut each “fan” of leaves into the shape of an arrowhead pointing away from the foot. Don’t cut the leaves down to the nubbins, they’ll need some green to continue to photosynthesize.

Once all the irises have been tended to, put on the rubber gloves, and into the paper bag, pour in some dusting sulfur. It’s very stinky so go slow and smooth. Grab a small handful of the tidied irises, place them into the bag and fold it over, shutting it completely. Give the bag a brisk shake so you coat the irises with the dusting sulfur. Repeat until all the tidied iris are coated. You can place the coated irises on a beer flat. I suggest that you do all this part of the process in a shaded spot.

Once the shake coating is done, it’s time to plant. Your goal is to plant the knobby foot/string root combo into the soil while leaving most of the leaves sticking up. Leave about six inches between each iris.

Once you have all the irises replanted give the bed a good sprinkling of water. Remember to water three times a week through the end of this month, maybe until the middle of September, weather depending. Then implement the city’s 1-2-3-2-1 recommended water plan. You should have a healthy, happy iris bed that will reward you with flowers galore next spring! Have fun while you’re out there Diggin’ In!