How to divide Iris

Iris is my favorite flower and over the years I have grown thousands of them, probably.  They are perennial and easy to grow, little maintenance is needed.  Typically every 3-5 years I will dig them up and divide them because they get crowded and won't produce blooms.  So this was the year to do it.  Here are photos on what I did and the end results.

This one was probably 5 years old and did not flower this year.  I took off all the side stuff and broke off three of the bumps.  

A typical iris bed around my house.  See how they are clustered and crowded.  I dug all this up with a pitch fork, so as not to break the roots, and divided them all, throwing away the small side plants and trimming the leaves into a fan shape.  

This is one cleaned-up flower bed.  The iris now have shorter leaves and no side growths.  The roots are buried but the rhizome is above the ground, as if it gets too much water it will rot.  Not a pretty smell, either.  The other plants are columbine and lily.

Pitch forked this clump.  Notice the middle rhizome has no leaves.  Time to throw it out and keep some of the larger side ones. 

This same clump broken up.

A very mature iris.  The roots were cut back, then replanted.  Dig the hole deep enough for the roots to fit below or behind the rhizome.  Then cover them with dirt and pack lightly.  Sometimes these things look like really ugly bugs  :-)  

These are some of the many larger iris I decided to keep, all trimmed and ready to replant.   I threw away a bag of the discarded leaves and plants.  Sad to do it, but I have no space for all that I would like to grow.

About 8 years ago I counted in my garden 100 iris growing!  They were mostly purple, but also a few other colors.  The thing is you can't tell what color the flower will be just by looking at it.  I have given away lots of iris by putting them in a basket out at the street with a sign stating they could have as many as they want.