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Deadheading water Iris?

jamesharcourtjamesharcourt Posts: 465
in Plants
Should you do this?

I’m talking about a pond variety that is partially submerged… bulb-like short-ish narrow leaves protrude from the water as did a flowerhead recently… I’m wondering if you need to deadhead or whether it produces more flowers? 
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  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,908
    Mine never reflower.
    They do produce nice seed pods with pretty seeds though.
    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 52,116
    Do you mean a cultivated variety, James, rather than the yellow flag iris?
    I don't know anyone who deadheads them, but it wouldn't think it can  do any harm.
    The church near me has sibiricas along the narrow borders surrounding the grass [shows how consistenly wet it is] and they bloom every year, on cue. They're looking lovely just now. I don't remember them ever being deadheaded.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • jamesharcourtjamesharcourt Posts: 465
    The flower was pink @Fairygirl as I remember ... it was there a week or maybe two?  
  • LynLyn Posts: 21,921
    I don’t deadhead mine, they don’t seem to self seed only root spread. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 52,116
    I can't think of any pink varieties James, though there are lots of reddish purples. Are you sure it was an iris?
    As you can see though - the general consensus is that there's no need for deadheading if it is an iris :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Digging-itDigging-it Posts: 100
    Hello, I have iris sibiricas in my garden which has very sandy soil and is dry most of the time but they do very well nonetheless. I split them periodically as the centres tend to go bare as they spread, I cut off the deadheads just to keep them tidy though.
  • Digging-itDigging-it Posts: 100
    That probably doesn’t help much with water irises, sorry!
  • jamesharcourtjamesharcourt Posts: 465
    Fairygirl said:
    I can't think of any pink varieties James, though there are lots of reddish purples. Are you sure it was an iris?
    As you can see though - the general consensus is that there's no need for deadheading if it is an iris :)
    I'll need to get back into the mountain of plant labels :-)   brain scrambles the names sometimes ...
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,408
    Iris ensata perhaps - that comes in shades of blue, purple and quite pinkish purple?
  • ZenjeffZenjeff Posts: 644
    There is a pink ensata called rose queen
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