Rescuing the Rhizomes, the OCD Way

It was one of the summer tasks I had been dreading, but on this day, somehow it seemed like just the thing to take my mind off everything else. So in the morning of a very hot day, I went out into the shady backyard and began dividing my irises. (My husband, by the way, calls this the "rhizome rescue," as irises are indeed rhizomes.)

The first thing I did was to get all of my stuff together: two yard carts, a little stool to sit on, as well as regular yard chairs, container of water, container of water with a 10% bleach solution, some towels to put things on, a few empty containers, trowels to dig with, a really sharp knife, scissors, a bottle of water for me, and yes, of course, my camera.

I dug up all of the irises carefully and put them in the one yard cart and placed the weeds in a second cart. I rolled the irises over to where all of my other supplies were. Then I sat in a chair and carefully cut the rhizomes apart with a sharp knife, removing old, thick parts. With the scissors, I trimmed the fans down to about six to eight inches or so, tossing the detritus into the second yard cart.

I dipped all of the resulting trimmed pieces into the bleach-and-water mixture, rinsed them off in the fresh water, then placed them on some towels to dry. As you can see above, a healthy dose of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) can turn any task into an organizing session. I'm not sure that arranging them in such an orderly fashion helped much, but it made me feel better, somehow.

I placed the irises in the shade to dry a while, and then I stopped to sit and survey my work. A beautiful blue butterfly - a red-spotted purple, which are among the friendliest butterflies of all - came and sat on my rhizomes, as though approving of everything I had done. (Hello, sister!)

I went back to the original iris bed and dug around in it for a while, making little trenches. Into the trenches I placed about 72 of the rhizomes (hey, but who's counting), covered them lightly with dirt, and tamped them down with the palms of my hands and also with my feet. Then I watered them thoroughly.

My own planting project used up less than one row of irises from the display that you see above. So I put all of the remainders into containers. The next day, I took the leftovers in to work to give away. Perhaps somebody else will get to enjoy some beautiful blooms in the coming years, thanks to my efforts!

I'd say the entire project took about four hours total. It was harder work than you might think. I did think about doing something whimsical with the rhizomes, but in the end, I just didn't have the energy. By the time I had finished, it was hot hot hot out, and I was sweaty and miserable, but glad I'd gotten the project done.

My war wounds from this project as of the following day: a numb middle finger on my right hand, from all of the cutting, and a sore hamstring on the left thigh, from all of the bending. Otherwise OK!

Oh, it's a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog! So the song to accompany this tune is the Beatles, with A Hard Day's Night.