Bearded Irises

My first experience with the bearded iris was soon after moving to the Pacific Northwest. These plants were flowering in the garden of our new home. The previous owner of the house had planted them against the west side of the house, where they were in the shade most of the day, and got afternoon sun only.
After a few years, I noticed that the irises were not doing well. The plants were growing leaves, but no flowers! I got interested and after some research found that these irises need a lot of sunlight. So I started to move the clumps of irises into new grounds with more sunlight. The irises have been flowering beautifully for years now, but the clumps have become overcrowded and the plants are ready to be divided. In early August, 2008, my husband and I made new beds to transplant the divided irises. We selected sunny locations and avoided wet areas in our yard because irises don't do well in wet conditions. We dug the new beds and amended the soil with our compost to get a well draining soil. After preparing the beds we watered the land before planting the new rhizomes. We dug up the crowded clumps of irises, and separated and cut the rhizomes into smaller pieces of new growth, and discarded the old parts of the rhizome. Next we cut the leaves at about six inches of length, planted the divisions into the new beds, and watered well.