Planting reblooming iris that are in pots

by Miriam
(West Chester, PA)

My favorite nursery recently had several types of reblooming iris in pots. I bought them and they bloomed in the next two to three days. I enjoyed the blooms very much. The nursery worker told me to plant them in the soil after they bloomed. I have read your advice about not planting potted bulbs until their usual planting time. Can I plant the iris now, or should I keep them in their pots and plant them in the fall? Thank you so much.

Doug says if these are iris "bulbs" they won't rebloom at all. But if they are Iris "corms" - and most of the reblooming ones are - then you can plant them in the garden at any time it's not fully frozen. :-)

I have no idea why the garden center person told you not to plant them until after they bloomed. As long as you're careful with this plant and don't wreck the roots (make sure the corm isn't buried more than a 1/4 inch down - I generally leave mine sitting or showing on the surface and bury the roots) then you should be fine to plant it.

If it's in bloom now - it might have been forced to bring it into color for sales so simply avoid frost on it (and you shouldn't have issues with that now)

Hope that helps - tough plants go outside into the garden.

But don't confuse iris bulbs with corms - (easy to do) they're two different kinds of plants.