Forward notes are a wonderful thing. There’s always so much to do in the garden that without some planning important jobs would be missed. And so it was this week when the Genus phone ‘pinged’ with the alert ‘DIVIDE IRISES!!!’ Yes, three exclamation marks and capital letters! Rightly so.
The particular clump in question had been missed when we last tackled the irises in the border adjoining the cottage at Genus HQ. With flowers conspicuous by their absence this large clump needed to be divided to allow more space between the plants. With the sun on our backs the rhizomes were lifted with a fork and collected in a trug. When all were dug up they were sorted and graded; the best and largest saved for replanting, smaller examples reserved for growing on, and dead or damaged ones discarded. Leaves were trimmed back and errant roots gently pruned.
The planting area against the cottage is particularly dry and poor so a small amount of our homemade compost and some chicken pellets were added. The best rhizomes were replanted just proud of the surface and facing the sun. A thorough soaking and the job was done. Fingers crossed, next years display will more than make up for the morning's work.