Iris and Easter Lily

canesisters

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I think it was my Iris that first brought me to TEG. I had a small bed of them that were changing colors on me. Huh.

Well last year I ended up with a couple of the Easter lilies from church so I stuck them in the ground between the iris' and a pine tree stump. Last week I was thinking that I REALLY NEED to thin out that bed of iris' and when I was looking them over I noticed that there were what looked like itty bitty lilies - but where I had planted 2 there were 8 sprouts! Last night I was leaving choir practice when I spotted 9 of them - all sad and limp - sitting next to the ladies room. Poor little things had done their decorating and now were waiting to be tossed in the trash. :rant They somehow got stuck in my truck and didn't make it into the dumpster.

SO - can Easter Lilies really grow - and bloom - in Virginia?
Is there anything I can do to help them along?? (I just stuck the 2 from last year in the ground because it seemed somehow wrong for them die in a pot - I had no idea they might live and come back)
Is it too late to move Iris?
 

so lucky

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I think they are pretty hardy. I would go ahead and plant them, trying not to disturb the soil around the roots too much. I guess, like other bulbs, they need their greenery to gather energy for next year's blooms. So I would leave the greenery. In your garden, the lilies will most likely bloom in summer. They smell great, and make a nice tall stalk. You may want to figure out how to stake them, like stick bushy branches upright amongst them before they get too tall in the spring.
 

thistlebloom

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Cane, if you're talking about bearded iris, it's never the wrong time to move them! They would probably survive a nuclear bomb.

You may sacrifice a bloom if they haven't already finished that, but iris are some of the toughest most forgiving plants around.
 

lesa

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Yup, my mother had a bunch of Iris in a bucket in her garage for the winter....when I finally found them and planted them- they did just fine! In fact, I was just thinking they need to be divided. Pretty hard to hurt them!
 

canesisters

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Wonderful! :clap Right now they're all in a tight bunch on the west side of the pine tree. I'm going to dig them up and spread them all the way around with the Easter lilis in a smaller ring closer to the tree. I really hope the Easter lilis will continue to grow and eventually bloom.
 

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