One of the most beautiful perennial plants of the iris family is iris. Planting and care of these plants have been known since ancient times. They planted fields, and rhizomes were used to prepare incense and medicine.
Irises are grown in all countries of the world . Caring for them is not so complicated, therefore, the number of landings is great. Varieties of hybrid bearded as well as hygrophilous irises are especially popular. Among beardless, the most popular type of enzate (xiphoid), which is very common in Japan (there are whole gardens of enzat irises).
The iris flower consists of 6 petal leaves, the upper ones form a dome, the outer ones (have barbs similar to stamens) are lowered to the bottom. But the stamens with the pestle are hidden inside the flower. Flowers are pollinated by insects. In the natural environment they can interbreed with each other, forming new varieties with a different color and proportion. This feature allows you to artificially produce many hybrids and varieties of iris.
To grow beautiful irises, planting and care for them require high-quality. First you need to plant them. These lovely plants multiply by dividing the bushes. They carefully dig out the old bush with a pitchfork and divide it into some dividers, where at least one fused link must be present. The roots are dried, old dead roots are removed, powdered with charcoal is ground or treated with a potassium permanganate solution. You can also separate the landing links by cutting the dividen to the side without digging the whole bush.
For bearded irises, the landing site is chosen sunny, without stagnation of water. Swamp iris grows well in low areas. Light loam is the best soil for all species. Before planting it is better to dig it and make compost or rotted manure.
Irises are transplanted at any time of the year. But better - 2-3 weeks after flowering. It is necessary to dig a hole, pour a mound of earth in it, straighten the roots of the delenka around the mound, cover it well with earth and squeeze it very tightly. It is advisable not to deepen the rhizome, it should be visible above the surface of the earth. The distance between new plantings in high varieties is 40 cm, medium - 20 cm, dwarf - 15 cm. Abundant watering is required for some time after planting.
In spring, iris (planting and caring for it is not particularly labor-consuming, as you see) is loosened, dried leaves are removed. When plants grow after winter, they are fed with phosphorus-nitrogen fertilizer in a ratio of 3: 1, and after three weeks - potassium-nitrogen in a ratio of 1: 1. It is usually watered in the dry period (plentifully) and before flowering, even during fertilizer application.
No matter how easy the cultivation of iris flowers, planting and caring for them should be right. Regular weeding and top dressing is the key to beautiful flower beds. But even this can not always save plants from pests and diseases. For irises, these are thrips, scoops, wireworms, slugs. If you find such, you need to process plants with malathion. The most dangerous disease for them is bacteriosis, rhizome rot. Initially, it appears on the leaves: they turn brown, wither, turn yellow and are easily pulled out. Then rhizome rots, and an unpleasant odor is emitted. Such diseased irises should be dug up, the areas affected by rot should be removed, the roots should be treated with potassium permanganate (solution) and well dried with sun rays.
But in order to prevent such cases of loss and damage to the iris flower, planting and care for it should be of high quality and caring. Then the beds will give only joy.