Dividing Irises

Here is one of the clumps of irises from the garden. Yes, it is full of grass, chives, and assorted weeds. This picture was taken at the end of September.

The next step is to start pulling this apart. I have already started on the other clump. It's heavy work. I used a spade to loosen the tuberous root. Then I had to dig under the clump of soil, root, and plant and pull.

A kitchen knife came in handy to cut away some of the roots.

As I mentioned, I had to wait until the wind died down and it stopped raining before I went back at this job. Also, I needed help because my hands were caked with dirt and I could not hold the camera. I got the help (thank you, Sam and Zack) and here are the steps in pulling up the old irises and separating out the roots and the weeds. This next picture shows the shovel loosening up the clump.

Here is the underside of the piece we dug out. You can see the irises and the grasses:

The helpers each take a sharp knife to the clumps. In the second photo you can see the blurred hand as he saws his way through the rhizome:

Success! There are some bits of the chives clinging to the root but they were brushed away before the next step.

Here is a new planting of irises.