thepolyparrot

I'm not sure, to be honest.

I have only ever cut the dead leaves off of the irises - some winters they stay green all through, but last month they were mostly killed. When I refreshed the compost and mulch on them yesterday, I found a lot of rotted rhizomes.

Blooms seem to be cyclical - some years, they bloom like crazy and some years, only a few. This year, I'm going to feed the heck out of them all summer to build the rhizomes for next year, then I'll divide them in the fall and refresh the whole pot.

oksewglad

RE: Iris...the rhizomes (or roots) need to be planted shallowy which is probably why they didn't like the -17 with no snow cover like we get here in the Upper Midwest. It's been my experience that they need to be divided every 4-5 years to maintain blooming. Anyone correct me if I am wrong. I have some simple yellow iris plants that were dug from my grandmother's farm yard in the early 1960's and transplanted to my mother's garden. In the 70's I brought roots from my mother's garden and now my daughter has the same yellow iris in her flower beds. A sweet garden tradition.

RE: Organizing. I've been sorting my fabric mess downstairs. For those that can tidy up in 15-30 minutes kudos to you! Yikes I've been at it for 4 hours and not sure if I see progress. Meanwhile when I come across 2" cuts that will work in the OMGosh quit I set them aside. I only need 15 more sets of 8 for the one block! My mind likes to multitask and then all at once I have a great deal accomplished! I need to have this area ready so I can spread out for the 3 tshirt quilts I need to make in the next 6 weeks.

retiredteacher09

I always cut my irises back to a few inches in the early fall. I didn’t look if my Asiatic Lilies were poking through yet. We still have 4-6 weeks before frost/freeze warnings are usually over.

oksewglad: Sweet story about the journey of your irises. I have tiger lilies that I brought from my ‘growing up’ home in the late 70’s/early 80’s. This is the second house for them. You will be seeing fabric in your sleep from your long hours sorting! . Great that you are multitasking.

I have been sorting through squares that were randomly thrown in a container. They are now roughly separated into sizes and will go into bags for now until I need them. Some will need trimming when I pull the bag out to use the squares. Feels good to have them organized and in a smaller container however.

thepolyparrot

I don't know; I'm kind of lazy about them and I haven't ever cut off any iris leaves except dead ones. But, the rhizomes need room, so you do need to dig them up and divide them into different areas or pots every so often. And they need good feeding to bloom, too - compost, fertilizer, plus a couple of inches of mulch to protect the roots if you're in a hot area.

WMUTeach

Organizing.... Ha Ha Ha. I am taking it in little bits. Yesterday I cut the pieces for the background squares for a new quilt, but the organizations came when I put all the pieces in a zip lock, trashed the scraps, put the extra fabric away where it goes, returned the cutting mat, blade and templates back where they all belong. Nothing sitting about except the little bag of cut pieces. Now, I just need to organize my time so I can sew them together!

oksewglad

good for you WMUTeach...it's the habit of cleaning up etc that keeps places neat and tidy. Guess I had better develop a new habit!

rryder

Sounds like everyone’s been hard at work and making progress (even if you can’t see it yet, oksewglad!).

I cleared away the pile of stuff on the floor between me and the lights, but have to confess that I cleared them away by stacking some on an unused chair and shoving others under the nightstand that one of the lights sits on. Guess that really doesn’t count as organizing...Otherwise, I have been doing pretty good at tidying up after myself when I complete a project- so that’s a bit of progress.

Next major organizing project for me is to tackle the pile of clutter that’s behind the big table in my other studio that I use for sandwiching my quilts and trimming them up after quilting. Actually, there is also a pile of stuff on the floor along the right hand side when looking into the room in addition to the pile behind it. Those piles are making it hard for me to walk around when I’m sandwiching so I am going to concentrate on them for the next week or so. Because they are piles left over materials from doing multiple projects for a couple of different charity auctions, I am hopeful that most of it will fit neatly into categories of stuff that I’ve already created storage spaces for. Wish me luck.

Rob

thepolyparrot

Today, I'm going to do ONE thing in my studio - sort out my giant laundry basket of scraps and put the quilting cottons into some sort of order.

Why did I keep all those cut-off scraps from knit blouses or pants? It's time to be ruthless.

After that, it's outside, to sort out my deck and get the new flowers planted.

retiredteacher09

WMUTeach and Rob: Sounds like progress to me.

thepolyparrot: I hope you were ruthless in your cleaning today.

thepolyparrot

I'm glad you said that! And I was! 😄

A full trash bag ready to go to the curb, (why was I saving some of that crap????) all the quilting scraps sorted and put away where they should have lived all along, and now the overflowing laundry hamper is only half full.

Progress a little slower on the back yard, but hopefully, tomorrow will tell a different story.