Staking bearded iris
KeenOnGreen
Posts: 1,823
in Plants
Our bearded Iris have all been knocked over by pigeons rooting around for seed from our nearby birdfeeder. The rhizomes are only very loosely attached to the ground. Has anyone seen any solutions for staking Iris to the ground. I thought of buying some u-shaped metal stakes. I will also relocate the bird feeder.
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My aerial bird feeders are all on hooks on a bar which is built over a huge stone slab so the ground feeders and crumb scavengers can peck away with no damage to plants and I can periodically sweep up old stuff and clean the area.
If your bearded iris have decent roots they shouldn't be falling over. The rhizomes are supposed to be on the surface so they can get baked - in cooler UK gardens anyway. When I split mine I pot the new plants up and keep them in a quiet nursery area so they can grow new roots before I plant them out.
If that's not possible for you, try using some U shaped metal thingies over the rhizomes. They sell them for pegging down weed membrane and I use it for jobs like holding stems down when I'm propagating by layering. Should work for iris till they get their roots down.
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