How to Divide Bearded Irises

Many gardeners have delightful groupings of bearded irises growing in a sunny flower garden. Not only are these perennial flowers a colorful garden addition, but they are also simple to maintain from year to year. Enjoy your bearded irises as they decorate your landscape in the spring with their pretty blooms. Divide bearded irises about every five years to ensure continued blooms and healthy iris plants.

Things You'll Need

• Bearded irises
• Garden spade
• Sharp knife
• Shovel

Instructions

1. Watch the irises in the spring so you know when they are blooming. Wait one month after the blooms fade and then prepare to dig the iris rhizomes up from the soil to divide.

2. Dig the iris plants you are dividing from the soil with the garden spade. Carefully remove the entire rhizome from the dirt and lay it carefully on the ground to examine it.

3. Use the knife to cut apart the rhizomes to divide them. The mother rhizome is the rhizome that just finished blooming. Remove the new rhizomes clustered around the mother rhizome by cutting them away. Make sure each new rhizome has roots. Discard the mother rhizome after removing the new rhizomes.

4. Plant the new rhizomes in the soil immediately. Space the new bearded iris rhizomes between 1 and 2 feet apart and plant the rhizomes so that the top of the rhizomes are just under the soil. You must plant bearded iris rhizomes extremely shallow.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not replant the mother rhizome because these older rhizomes often begin to decay and may introduce disease among the iris plants. It is also unlikely that this mother bearded iris will bloom again.

References

• Iris Club: Bearded Iris Care
• National Garden Association: Bearded Iris