Dinner Plate Iris ensata Collection

Planting Advice for Iris ensata:

• Grow Iris in a sunny, sheltered site in moist, well-drained soil.  Protect from frost and winds.
• Dig a planting hole 3 x wider than the roots of the shrub you're planting and mix some well-rotted compost or manure with the soil from the hole and use this to re-fill once the shrub is in place.
• Before planting soak container-grown shrubs thoroughly and allow to drain.
• Remove the plant from its pot and tease out a few of the roots.
• Add Mycorrhizal fungi to the roots when planting to help plants establish quicker.
• Place your plant in the hole at the same level at the pot.
• Refill the hole with the earth removed (backfilling) and firm in the soil with your heel, avoiding the root ball.
• Water well and mulch around the base of the plant with a collar, compost, gravel, bark etc.
• If you're planting into pots, place some old rocks, stones or gravel in the bottom of the pot for drainage and ballast.
• Use the best ericaceous compost you can buy and some sand or grit for drainage.

Aftercare Advice for your iris:

• Cover young plants through the first winter with a layer of mulch, straw or bark shavings etc.
• Water the plants weekly - especially in dry weather - for the first 8 weeks or so. When the soil and air warm up from late March onwards, you should see the plant burst into life.
• Water regularly in the first year after planting and especially between early March and the end of July.

Pruning Advice for Dinnerplate Iris:

• Trim back plants in autumn when they have finished flowering, or as necessary in the summer if they get messy and unmanageable.
• Remove spent flower stems after blooming.