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I am moving and taking my named varieties of iris with me. There are about 50 named iris, plus a lot of NOIDs.
The NOIDs I don't worry about because, well, they are NOIDs. But I want to keep the identity of the named iris.
Right now they are planted with a plot plan and map so I know which iris is in what location. I need to keep them identified as they are being moved and replanted and identified in their new location. Then (sigh), they will be moved again next year to another location.
I don't have any really expensive iris. The most I've paid is $15 for a rhizome, but I sure don't want to turn that $15 iris into a NOID. I usually trade for NOIDs, but the last time I paid money for them, it was 20 rhizomes for $1.
I am the queen of moving plants. I have some iris I dug from my grandmother's home in Oklahoma to my new garden in Oklahoma to our first home in Georgia to our second and third homes in Georgia,to this home in NC and next spring they will be back on roller skates to our retirement home just a few miles from here. I also have moved endless trees, shrubs and perennials.
Iris are the easiest to move because I didn't even need to have soil. I put them in paper bags with saw dust to keep them dry, stapled a picture to the bag and stored them in the basement for a few months until we moved. Do not use plastic cause that traps moisture which will cause mold and ickyness rot!
for perennials I used nursery pots with good potting soil, plant tags with names and a number code which I had in my masterfile. I also used white paint to put that number code on the nursery pot in case the labels got lost--and some did.
there are all sorts of labels available. In my poor days I used plastic knives from fast food places and permanent markers. But now I have some wonderful labels with thin metal place to write with dark pencil or permanent ink, and I'm not against the labels from the nurseries either. For special ones I use stones and rocks which I write on. I always put labels directly in FRONT of each plant so I know to look for it emerging each spring. if I have more than one I put "Agapanthus x 3" and still a small rock or stone in front of all of them even if I don't write on all the rocks.
Make a grid of the ones that you can ID on graph paper, going section by section. Use a different colored post it square for each section. Then number the ones you want and put the number with a post it in the paper bag and put the corresponding iris in the bag. Sounds harder than it is.
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