Mulch Mountains Can Kill Your Tree

Save Space & Garden Everywhere with a Deluxe PopUp Garden! Vertical gardening and growing in a small footprint is all the rage, and sometimes a necessity! Not everyone has expansive yards and large gardens to grow in. Sometimes you might just have a sunny corner on a balcony of your apartment or a small sun-filled window to grow in. So when you can’t grow out far and wide - you grow up! Grow Vertically! What’s Included in the Deluxe PopUp Garden Some Great Plant Combos to Try! Save Space! Check out these amenities: It's a Plantdemic with PopUp Gardening!  Grow Vertically! Any location 2 feet wide lets you garden with ease and convenience! Can’t bend over? Got sore knees? Now there’s no reaching, stretching, or bending to harvest veggies or admire the flowers with a PopUp Garden!  Create easy-to-reach gardening for all and take your garden anywhere! Keep kids and pets away from your plants by growing higher than they can reach. Place the plant trays where on the four sides and two levels you want them and there are no tools required to adjust, or readjust them as you desire! Adjust the trays as plants grow taller or spill longer. Add or remove trays as necessary and easily move the entire unit in case of bad weather, moving or just rearranging your space!  The top planter holds larger plants and even a smaller obelisk or plant tower for climbing vines! Drop in a small shrub or perennial to fill the top or grow larger annuals in the deeper planter the top insert allows! Try a fancy mix of upright, mounding and spillers, fillers and thrillers in your planter! Larger up top and small perennials or annuals filling in the trays below! There’s even room in the bottom for another plant in a pot of your choice! What’s Included in the Deluxe PopUp Garden Imagine flowers cascading in every corner of your porch, herbs within easy reach on your patio, or vegetables growing on your balcony! It’s easy with these portable, lightweight, and adjustable planters!  Whether you do have an area to plant in or not, these fantastic stackable planters are modular, easy to set up without tools, and you can be ready to plant in minutes! Each Deluxe PopUp Garden is 17x17 inches wide and 40 inches tall and includes: 3-Stand Component with Interlocking Sections - No Tools Required! Assembles In Seconds Planter for top insert Bottom Drip Tray 4-Pack of Adjustable Side Trays Sleek, durable, and lightweight, the Deluxe PopUp Garden Stand arrives at your doorstep with everything you need to start gardening on the fly! Just unpack it and stack it, and place the drip tray on the bottom. Insert planter to the top, and you're ready to garden!  The stand itself fully assembled is only 13.4lbs and made from sturdy recyclable PP-Copolymer plastic, it is naturally BPA-free and UV resistant! Some Great Plant Combos to Try! Use a single planter by your BBQ grill for herbs that zest up your food, add one by your outdoor bar for freshly picked mints and garnish for your drinks! Need some fragrant flowers by your favorite chair on a patio but don’t have any ground to plant in? Grow vertically! Even climbing or spiller plants look great in these sleek, durable planters! Add a Bushel and Berry® Peach Sorbet® or Midnight Cascade® Blueberry Bush, or a Raspberry Shortcake® up top and fill in the trays with spilling Strawberry plants and small veggies for healthy fruit that won’t take up lots of space! Try a dwarf Filigree Clematis climbing on a pyramid support in the center, skirted in Bowles Periwinkle spillers on the top, and fill the trays with Creeping Sedum, Germander, and dwarf Lavender.  Plant a tall Fern filling the top planter and smaller shade plants like Dwarf Hosta, Ivy or Lamium in the trays!  Go high-style with a spikey Yucca or Foxtail Fern up top and Golden Creeping Thyme spilling out around it. Fill the trays with Creeping Zinnia, dramatic Ajuga or Succulents!  Grow peppers or cherry tomatoes in the top planter and create your own salsa garden or Italian herb garden in the trays! Mini carrots and green onions happily ramble in these trays! Tuck in a Robert Grimm Dwarf Culinary Sage and Cascading Rosemary for spillers. Go formal with a Dwarf Yaupon Holly topper, Mondo grass in the trays and Ajuga groundcover spillers filling in the gaps from top to bottom! You can even move your houseplants outdoors or grow them vertically indoors in front of a sunny window! Pair a colorful Croton with spilling Philodendrons and Golden Creeping Jenny for a high-style display! It’s entirely up to you! Save Space! Your new Deluxe PopUp Garden is so space-saving and convenient that it fits about anywhere! Tuck into the corner of a porch, deck, or balcony for container gardening or edible landscaping without losing out on space. Grow flowers or veggies around your seating areas, on a front stoop, or add an herb garden by your back door. Talk about convenience!  Maybe you have a flower bed that needs some height? Or drop one right in the middle of an existing veggie garden to elevate smaller plants that might get swallowed by vines or taller plants! You’ll love adding height to any planting bed with the Deluxe PopUp Garden! Each modular PopUp Garden allows you to grow plants both up, down, and around more than doubling potential crop yield in the same space by 245%! Easily grow organically in the city, plant flowers in a postage stamp backyard, grow microgreens by a sunny window, or snip herbs on a three-season porch.  The main container has an opening to allow for drainage or to grow vining plants. It's just another way the PopUp Garden allows you to maximize your growing potential in a small space! The Deluxe PopUp Garden revolutionizes small-space gardening by making vertical gardening easy, portable and convenient! Now you can enjoy flowers, veggies, and herbs anywhere!  Check out these amenities: Lightweight, Self-Supporting & Sustainable Perfect for balcony and terrace or even sunrooms Easily portable Configurable trays and height Conserves space Deters pests, fungus and weeds Optimal airflow to prevent rot & disease Adjustable height  Spill-proof drip tray - No Mess Closely monitor and control moisture and care No matter how small your garden is, you will harvest more by growing plants vertically. The benefit of growing up (and not out) include greater yield, easier harvesting and doubling potential crop yield in the same space by 245%! It's a Plantdemic with PopUp Gardening!  Produce a fabulous, fluffy foodscaping garden even in the smallest of spaces! Just add soil and plants! Head over to NatureHills.com today and grab everything you need for your garden - no matter how much room you have to work with! Happy Planting!

What to Do When Planting in the Fall It’s that time of year for most of the country. The weather is causing plants to go dormant. So please excuse their appearance! Right now we can almost hear them saying: “We're old and we're tired - So plant us and leave us alone (until spring)!” It’s fall and many plants are so done with this year! (I think a lot of us agree!) So you can understand why some trees, shrubs and perennials are being shipped to your door this time of the year without leaves and maybe looking a bit bare! That’s because they are, like… literally … so done with this year! What to Do When Planting in the Fall What to Expect in the Fall! The Nursery Environment Planting Fall Container Plants Happy Planting! What to Expect from Container Plants in the Fall! After the first few cooler nights and shorter days, plants are triggered - literally and chemically - to signal the all-stop. By now their leaves are more than ready to call it quits. That foliage has been out in the sun, beaten up by storms, hail, and rain, had a few bugs fly by and have a sample, and are well … old! They’re tired and ready to get rid of that old leafy wardrobe that’s ‘so last year’. While roots and/or stems go to sleep for a much-needed winter's rest. Deciduous perennials, trees, and shrubs are coming out of their delivery boxes with brown spotted, tattered leaves and looking less than fall splendor-worthy. Many are already tan, brown, or bare.  New gardeners may be aghast when that potted Peony or Iris arrives as a container of stubble. Or when a pot of bare, brown sticks arrives that’s supposed to be a perennial Coreopsis or Hosta. You may think we lost our minds and just shipped you a pot of dirt!  Don’t worry! It’s dormant and a completely normal look for those plants that have been grown in pots out in the field! Where Are My Leaves? “Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.” - Unknown No, we didn’t give your perennial Bee Balm or Columbines a buzz cut to save on shipping costs! Those stems and leaves were already dead or dying, as they do anyway, naturally, whether in the ground or not. So there is absolutely no need to ship them to you!  Once your perennials go dormant, you’re going to need to prune those leaves off and dispose of them in the fall anyway. Through a process called abscission, deciduous plants get rid of their old leaves. Very few plants and perennials, like some species of Oak, keep those brown, dead leaves on their stems all winter.  Our nurseries are busy cleaning up some of the plants that are already going dormant as we continue to ship as long as the weather allows us to! Those dormant plants are more than ready and willing to get in the ground and establish themselves in their new homes all winter. Plants get rid of those old, dead leaves for the same reasons our nurseries are trimming perennials back once they turn yellow or tan. They’re discarding anything that might harbor disease or fungal issues, help pests over-winter in the litter, or break the plant's stems under the weight of snow! Those leaves have done their jobs for the year and its time to let them go! For herbaceous perennials, that means the stems too! Once dormant, a perennial plant, bulb, rhizome, or shrub's energy has now been stored deep in the ground in its roots. There’s enough energy there for it to make roots all fall, through mild winters, and in the spring once the ground thaws - ready to jump out of the ground with a fresh new leafy wardrobe and bloom for you in profusion! Shipping dead leaves and stems would be like us saying, ‘Here … You throw this away!’ The Nursery Environment Nature Hills growers don’t pamper and coddle your landscape plant material. Your plants are grown out in the sun, rain, storms, and nature! We do this to toughen up your plants so they will be able to handle anything your garden can throw at them! Grown under overhead sprinklers to keep them cool and watered, they may develop spots on the leaves from leaf burn in the hot sun. Have a few tatters from being whipped in the wind. The container's soil mixture and their young age also mean these plants won’t have the perfect conditions for that lovely fall color you may have bought them specifically for. So on arrival, you may be disheartened to see brown or absent leaves.  Don’t worry, a year or two in the ground will fix that! What To Do With Your Pot of Dirt and Stems Dormancy means that plants are shutting off moisture and nutrients going to their soft tissues in preparation for freezing temperatures, dry weather, or water and nutrient shortages. Fall dormancy in terms of herbaceous perennials means their tops have done their job for the year and are no longer working as efficiently as possible, let alone looking their best.  So it is time to dispose of them and get ready for next spring's new leaves! Plants grown in containers and in the field typically go dormant sooner than plants in the ground, or plants in different growing zones! (PS: they may take a bit longer to come out of dormancy their first spring too!) They may also be grown somewhere colder or have different weather than your growing zone has experienced. So it’s for good reason that they arrive a little ahead of the game compared to other, established, plants in your landscape.  Without foliage to support in the fall and early spring, your plant can focus entirely on adapting to its new home, establishing a new root system beyond the confines of its pot, and acclimating so it can be ready to pop next year. Fall Planting 101 On arrival - Soak your roots, soil, and container in a bucket until bubbles stop rising Let drain as you prepare the planting site Gently remove the plant and inspect the root system Trim away circling roots and tease them to loosen Plant at the same depth they were in their containers and backfill with native topsoil Tamp down gently as you water it well Continue to water until it pools, let drain, then water until pools form again Top the root zone with a 3-4 inch layer of arborist mulch bark chips Check daily to see if it needs water and water well until the ground freezes in your area Maybe place a plant name tag or marker in the area so you remember what that patch of mulch with some stubble in it was. If your memory is like mine, you’ll thank yourself in the spring when you are scratching your head trying to remember what those new green leaves are supposed to be.  Good Things Do Come In Small Packages! Nature Hills has been in business selling and shipping plants since 2001, so we know a bit about this! Let the experts calm your worries and fears when you receive your next bagged bareroot tree, or pot of soil and stubble - knowing that you have just received an established, quality plant with loads of potential next spring! As always, if you ever have any questions or concerns about new plant material that just arrived from Nature Hills Nursery, first check the instructions that came with your new plant, or with our Planting Guide Here, or our Garden Blog for Planting Information. Then, if you still need more advice, reach out to our knowledgeable staff for everything you need to get your plant off to the best start possible! We love photos! Do you have a transformation you’d like to show us or have a specific question about your plant? Snap a picture and send it our way! We love seeing our plants in your landscape!

Juicy jewel-like nuggets nestled inside a tough leathery exterior, the Pomegranate tree and its antioxidant-rich fruit brighten both your garden and your diet! Bold red, orange or yellow flowers and lovely fine-textured foliage, Pomegranates are ornamental flowering and fruiting trees that are sure to enliven the landscape! If you’re in a warmer climate and looking for a drought-resistant tree with ornamental beauty and amazingly healthful fruit, look no further than Nature Hills' wide selection of Pomegranate tree varieties. Origins of the Pomegranate Tree Pomegranate Tree Care Pomegranate Sun & Soil Requirements Pomegranate Tree Watering Needs Pruning Pomegranate Trees Fertility Thinning Three Seasons of Color Fruitful Healthful Pomegranate Trees Origins of the Pomegranate Tree Pomegranate trees are relatively fast-growing fruit trees that produce highly sought-after fruit. Typically ripening around and given as gifts for the holidays, the hidden gems inside the blushed leathery exterior have been a heart-healthy and diet-conscious addition for decades!  Pomegranates are one of the oldest fruits in cultivation! Since ancient times in the Mediterranean, their exotic beauty and delicious fruit made them wildly popular throughout the Middle East, India, and more arid parts of Southeast Asia and Northern Africa. Pomegranates made their way into Europe through Spain, and the fruit was prized in England even though it did not thrive in that colder climate. English colonists in America tried to import the tree, but those in southern colonies like Georgia and South Carolina were the only ones to see success. The Pomegranate tree was introduced to California by Spanish settlers in 1769 where it continues to thrive today! Pomegranate Tree Care Pomegranates thrive in a wide range of warmer USDA growing zones between 7 through 10. But those gardeners in cooler climates need not despair! You can grow a patio Pomegranate tree in a large planter and simply move it into a bright sunny window, sunroom or greenhouse for the winter!  These are easy-to-grow and low-maintenance fruit trees and require about the same care you’d expect from any other fruiting tree or shrub! They are even disease-resistant and self-fruitful! Full Sun Moderate Moisture & Fertility Loves Mulched Beds Prune Late Winter/Early Spring Plant in Well-Drained Average to Organically Rich Soil Requires ~150-300 Chill Hours Self-Fruitful Drought Tolerant Once Established Pomegranate Sun & Soil Requirements Tolerant to a wide variety of soil conditions and accepting any well-drained soil type, Pomegranates thrive in the full sun all day and for best flowering and fruiting require a minimum of 6 hours of direct light a day.  Pomegranate Tree Watering Needs Requiring average, but consistent moisture, once established these are drought-tolerant trees. Apply water on an even, regular schedule until the roots are well established. An uneven application of water can result in split fruit. Apply a three-inch layer of arborist mulch over the root system. Pull it back away from the trunk by several inches. Apply organic fertilizer for fruiting plants. Follow the directions on the package for both timing and application rates. Once the plant is established, it can survive periodic droughts. However, container plants need careful water their whole life. During dormancy, water once a month at most, and ensure the excess water drains quickly. Pruning Pomegranate Trees Prune in late winter - or before new growth begins to emerge in early spring - to shape and control the size of your tree as needed. Pomegranates can be a bit hesitant to leaf out in the spring, so don’t panic if you are not seeing leaves as soon as the weather warms. Those bare stems mean it is a great time to view the framework of your tree, remove weak or sickly-looking branching, eliminate crossing branches and style your tree specifically for your yard and needs. It’s important to open the canopy up to the sunlight and good air circulation as well. Some varieties of Pomegranate sucker and you can allow them to grow as colonies if you so desire the larger size, spread, and privacy they’ll create! Otherwise, simply remove these suckers when they appear to maintain a clean, single-stem trunk.  You can even prune Pomegranates into smaller shrubs with their limbs to the ground for screening and an easy-to-reach size. Fertility Fertilize Pomegranate trees as they leaf out with a good slow-release and preferably organic fruit tree fertilizer to support their relatively fast growth. If not slow-release, be sure to provide your tree with supplemental fertilizer 2-3 times a year during the growing season. Thinning Sometimes fruit trees can get carried away, or have a mast year, meaning they will have an enormous bounty of fruit and your tree branches may hang dangerously heavy with fruit. Other times multiple fruits can hang on the same branch but each is smaller than you would expect or desire. This is when thinning your fruit tree is necessary. For the largest, healthiest fruit, look carefully at each cluster and remove the smaller side fruit from each branch and leave the largest, healthiest fruit to grow. Do this while the fruit is still small and just starting to form. This pumps all the tree's energy and focus into larger, healthier fruit and prevents your tree's limbs from weakening or even breaking under their burden. Three Seasons of Color The Pomegranate tree is attractive in any landscape and can thrive for decades in warmer planting zones. Pomegranate tree flowers are showy and decorative, bringing a splash of red to your property in the spring that continues well into summer! Their trumpet-shaped blooms attract pollinators, though the tree does not need outside pollination to produce fruit!  Deciduous trees in cooler climates, Pomegranate trees may behave as broadleaf evergreen trees in more tropical zones and areas with mild winters. All growing season, the foliage is dark green and glossy.  Multiple trunks with distinctively twisted bark often appear sculpturally entwined for added visual interest and delight in winter. In autumn, the leaves turn a brilliant yellow as large, round, red fruit conclude the Pomegranate’s three seasons of colorful entertainment! Whether you have room for a large Pomegranate tree like the Tom’s Red or the Purple Heart, or you may need a small tree like the Parfianka for your porch or patio planters, you’ll be delighted with several pounds of late-season fruit each year on a mature tree. Fruitful Healthful Pomegranate Trees Pomegranate fruits are quite unique and always eye-catching! Ripening between August through Winter, ready when they change from their rounded form to a more rugged hexagon shape as the seeds inside swell.  The spherical outer shell is filled with dozens of small ruby-colored seeds clustered inside, with the exception of the Gissarskii Rozovyi which looks more like a Grapefruit inside and out!  The leathery skin ranges from red and green, to orange and brown and even pink. Each features unique pointed ‘arils’ that are all that remains of where the flower once was to create a large rosehip-like effect.  This fruit produces delicious citrus-flavored juice that is sweet with a slight acidic edge. It has been universally acclaimed for its health benefits! Pomegranates are used for juice, jellies, Pomegranate wine and salad dressings. Eaten fresh as snacks, added to desserts and salads, the shiny plump jewels and their edible seeds make any dish look fit for a king or queen!  Featuring a long storage life, the fruit can be kept for a period of seven months under special storage conditions without shrinking or spoiling, in fact, the fruits improve in storage! Becoming juicier and intensifying the flavor! Pomegranate fruit is low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. It contains high amounts of vitamin C, calcium, and iron while also contributing to dietary fiber and folate. Pomegranate fruit contains antioxidants that are purported to help protect blood lipids from oxidation.  Check out Nature Hills Nursery’s YouTube Channel to cut open your Pomegranate fruit and not make a mess! Quite pricey in the grocery store, the beauty, joy and large harvests you’ll enjoy by growing your own Pomegranate certainly outweigh the one-time cost of purchasing a tree!  Pomegranate is Latin for 'seeded apple', and you’ll love having one of these exotic fruits a day to keep the doctor away! Get growing your own Pomegranate Tree with the help of NatureHills.com today! Happy Planting!

The scent of heaven! Honeysuckle Vines are incredibly easy-to-grow and vibrantly flowered woody perennial Vines that make vertical gardening a snap! Their vibrant colors, sweet fragrance, and unusual tubular-shaped blooms delight onlookers both young and old! Named for how kids 'back in the day' would pluck a flower and be able to suck out the sweet honeyed nectar from the end. With all going on in today's environment, it's best to leave that nectar for the many bees, butterflies, beneficial insects, and swarms of Hummingbirds that will be ever drawn to your Vines! (But like how we’re not supposed to eat raw cookie dough … we’re sure you’ll try it at least once!) With the fall planting season upon us, now is a great time to plant one of these remarkable and heaven-scented vines from Nature Hills Nursery today! Planting Tips for Honeysuckle Vines! Planting Made Easy! Basic Care Learning to Climb Pruning Sweet Blooms! Planting Honeysuckle Vines Made Easy! Growing Honeysuckle plants can be done in just about every region of the world, as there are some that grow in dry, arid areas, and others that will grow in Arctic Russia. Here in the States, Honeysuckle Vines thrive in USDA growing zones 4 and up. Soak container and roots until bubbles stop rising                                                                                                            Dig a hole as deep and a bit wider than the container Unpot and loosen roots Place roots in the prepared hole and backfill with soil Water very well and tamp down to remove air pockets Mulch the surface Honeysuckle can be planted from containers all season long. Once a suitable site is selected, the hole should be dug large enough for the root system to spread out - a bit wider than the container it is currently in, but at the same depth as it is currently potted. The roots should be only a few inches underneath the surface of the soil, not too deep - not too shallow. Once in place, the plant should be watered thoroughly. Then check moisture levels using the Finger-Test method on a daily basis to see if you need to water that day or not. Apply a layer of arborist bark chips to hold in moisture and insulate the surface roots. Basic Honeysuckle Growing Conditions & Care It’s fall, so now and spring are optimal planting times! Plus Honeysuckle is relatively easy to care for if the proper conditions are met, and really, it’s so easy going even a newbie gardener can enjoy these beautiful blooms! Full Sun to Partial Sun/Shade   Regular, Even Moisture Well-Drained Alkaline to Slightly Acid Soil Loves Mulched Beds! Most Honeysuckle plants require full sun to flower best, however, the more sun you give other Honeysuckle, the more blooms you’ll enjoy! Plant these Vines in an area of moist well-drained soil that's organic and enriched with plenty of humus for holding additional moisture. While Honeysuckle Vines need a decent amount of moisture in the soil to thrive, standing water will cause rot. Growing should be done in a location with a good amount of soil drainage. The best thing you can do is site your Honeysuckle Vine where there is good air circulation and mulch the root zone to help maintain the soil moisture at more consistent levels.  Learning to Climb When planting Honeysuckle Vines, there should be a sturdy trellis or fence for them to climb because they climb by twining. Technically known as Bines, rather than Vines, due to this climbing method, which means that they will not be able to climb a surface that does not have anything to twist or wrap themselves around.  For sheer walls and areas you want them to climb but have no footholds - secure heavy-duty twine, wire, or wire fencing to the area to give the vines something to grab hold of. Because of this method of ascending, there is no need to worry about persistent suckers or tendrils that dig into the wood. Your fencing and your home's paint job are safe as these will not adhere to your siding like Boston Ivy or Trumpet Vines can! Without strong, suitable support, your Vine will ramble and spill all over the ground, which is great if you want a fragrant, flowering groundcover! Train to climb up any obelisk, arbor, trellis, fence, or staircase railing you desire, so long as it is strong enough to support these plants at maturity. You may need to use soft twist-ties or soft fabric (t-shirt material works great) to secure new tendrils until they can wrap around a new wrung or foothold.  Train up a lattice wall for privacy, train up and around seating areas, on porches and patios, or even on a sunny balcony! You’ll enjoy screening and shade, plus butterflies galore! A vine climbing a staircase or a chicken wire-wrapped column of your porch looks and smells divine! Pruning Honeysuckle Vines Easy to grow Lonicera generally only require an early spring prune to reduce the size or change the shape. Honeysuckle Vines are vigorous, fast growers and will need some pruning every year.  Pruning is generally done in early spring or late winter, removing old and dead growth, and trimming out thick old canes. Be careful not to prune after your Vine has started leafing out in the spring and summer because Honeysuckle blooms on new growth. Because larger, more mature plants can get so big and bushy, they may begin to overshadow their lower branches and stems. This can result in shaded-out growth at the base or interior of the plant. You can either ‘limb up’ your plants and expose the twisted woody stems, or begin a habit of thinning out the tops so that sunlight and air circulation can get to all parts of the plant. Sweet Climbing Blooms! Save garden space by growing vertically while perfuming your landscape with the remarkable, vivid, climbing Honeysuckle Vines from NatureHills.com today! You will be glad you included these easy-care plants in your design! Happy Planting!

Unique and upright, the dramatic Iris plant is an incredibly versatile and adaptable ornamental perennial that has captivated gardeners for centuries! Gently spreading and colonizing areas in your garden and adding an elegant touch anywhere it is planted, the Iris is a garden standard with all the modern advances and resistances needed for today's urban environments.  There are so many varieties of Iris these days that it is enough to make your head spin! From the most blinding pure white blooms to the deepest darkest near black and every color range and combination you can imagine in between! These include some of the true-blue flowers on the market today! Perhaps that’s how they got the name ‘Iris’ which stems from a Greek word used  to describe a rainbow. We know you will want as many of these spring-to-summer-blooming perennial plants in your garden as possible so that you can fill your outdoor world and your indoor floral arrangements with vertical elegant color!  So it’s important to know how to care for these great plants and how to plant, divide and transplant them! The Mighty Iris Basic Iris Care & Location Transplanting New or Established Iris Plants Planting Bulb Form Iris Rhizomatous Iris Basic Planting & Location for Iris Dividing Iris Elegant Easy-To-Grow Iris! The Mighty Iris Found growing ornamentally in gardens dating back to 1469 B.C. in King Thutmose III of Egypt's gardens, and documented here in the US in Virginia in the 1600s. However, there are also a great many native varieties that span forests, meadows, and wetlands throughout the entire continental US and even Alaska!  The Iris is a versatile spreading perennial that colonizes areas both moist/wet to average soil locations by way of underground rhizomes. These rhizomes are actually modified stems where roots form from and new plants shoot up, while also acting like a bulb to store food and moisture underground. Dutch Iris is an exception because they grow from bulbs like Tulips and Hyacinths, which are also modified stems but are more similar to that of an onion. This modified stem allows Iris to adapt to a wide range of climates and soil types, plus an incredible array of moisture conditions! The coldest USDA growing zones 2 - 4 suit these plants just  fine, and they are equally adaptable to hot zones 9 and 10! Sword-like foliage that remains upright all growing season, and forms fan-shaped clumps of green, to variegated green and white stands. The slender buds shoot up in late spring to early summer and often have multiple blossoms per stem. Each Iris bloom is comprised of 3 upright 'flags' or 'standards' and three spilling 'falls' or petal-like sepals.  They can be ruffled, striped, veined, fuzzy, tow-tone or even tri-colored! Many are fragrant and some even smell just like sweet grape jelly! It's no wonder the pollinators can't stay away. Basic Iris Care & Location Iris plants should be planted in an area with full direct sunlight. While some Iris can tolerate partial shade, you’ll notice the blooms will not be as large or last as long as plants that are in at least 6 hours of direct light a day. Japanese Iris tolerates sandy and clay soil, so long as it is well-drained German Bearded Iris does best in sharply drained soils that won’t ever have standing water Bearded Iris is also highly drought tolerant once established  Native or Louisiana Iris is a carefree and easy-going native wildflower of North America and tolerates a wide range of soil and moisture conditions Siberian and Flag Iris love moisture and occasionally wet soils  There are even reblooming Iris like Eternal Bliss and some Tall Bearded Iris Many tolerate being planted under and around Black Walnut trees and juglone Iris are deer-resistant perennials - usually passed by except when desperate  Careful attention to moisture and well-drained soil is necessary to prevent the bulbs or rhizomes from rotting. If poor drainage is suspected, mound up the soil to create a berm 18-24 inches higher than the surrounding soil and plant into that mound. It is recommended to divide Iris, or clean out old rhizomes, every 3-5 years to keep the clumps smaller and stress-free. When the foliage dies back in the late autumn and turns brown/tan, then it is time to remove it. Gently tug any old brown leaves clear from the roots and trim away any stubborn ones to about 3 inches above the ground. Pick up and discard all trimmings and old leaves to prevent harboring mold and disease. Sanitation is very important. Mulch the site well in preparation for winter snow.  Transplanting New or Established Iris Plants Nature Hills offers Iris in both container forms during the growing season and as bareroot (dormant) selections now for fall through early spring planting. While best planted in the autumn as you would other fall-planted ephemerals and Peony roots, you will still have a successful transplant during other times of the year with proper attention and care. Bareroot Iris will arrive at your doorstep dormant and grow the next spring. However, potted Iris arrive in leaf and you may enjoy a bloom or two their first summer in the ground, but let those roots settle in before you see a great display the following year. Planting Bulb Form Iris The Iris x hollandica or Dutch Iris arrives in bulb form and is planted just like planting any other bulb plant. Preferably in the autumn so they can enjoy warm soil and cool fall air to form strong root systems. Planting depth is generally 3 to 5-inches deep and apart, keeping the pointed side up, backfilling with well-draining topsoil, and then watered in well until the ground freezes. Often naturalizing and fragrant, these spring delights are favorites of florists. Let them be free in a small wildflower or prairie setting, Rock Garden, around water features or for general garden use. Create groupings or winding rows throughout your planting beds where they politely spread and fill in all the gaps. Rhizomatous Iris When transplanting Iris that arrive in rhizome forms, such as your Siberian, Japanese and Bearded Iris varieties, be sure to not plant them too deep. Work a handful of bone meal or slow-release organic fertilizer below the roots, then plant so the top of each rhizome is just an inch or so below the soil surface. You’ll see the bumps or shoots of next year's leaves on one side, so be sure to plant with those facing up. The upper 1/3 of the rhizome should be exposed to sunlight.  Basic Planting & Location for Iris Select a sunny spot with at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day Choose an area where the soil is well-drained Dig a hole about a foot across and deep (or the depth and width of your pot) Add fertilizer or bonemeal at this time Mound soil up in the bottom of the hole back up to about 8 inches or so Lay the rhizome horizontally on top of that mound to check the depth So very important that the top one-third of that rhizome will be exposed to the sunlight Spread the roots out around that mound and backfill the hole with your soil Tamp down to remove air pockets Thoroughly water the soil to settle it around the roots Mulch with some sand mixed with a bit of Arborist wood chips just to keep the roots from heaving during the winter Careful attention to only water the Iris when it gets dry or they will rot if too wet for too long. Although some Iris love standing water, most do best in moist, well-drained locations.  Iris that can grow in water include Siberian Iris varieties and both Yellow and Blue Flag Iris. Tuck these plants into your Rain Gardens or that soggy area where the gutters always drain! When it gets cold, top with a layer of clean, dry leaves, compost or a few inches of arborist mulch over the rhizome for winter insulation. In spring, pull back the mulch to expose the top one-third of the rhizome once again. When planting Iris in bulk, it is important to ensure that all the rhizomes are facing the same direction. This will prevent crowding. Transplanting of established clumps of Iris can also be performed if they are not growing well or seem sickly. Iris that are not getting enough sun should be transplanted into an area of the garden or landscape that will provide direct sunlight for the entire day. The Harvest of Memories Iris is a great pick to add to your summer or fall garden to add a burst of yellow foliage. The Iris has a subtle, sweet scent that attracts pollinators to its blooms. This choice is a great addition to brighten up any garden and bring happy memories to all gardeners who plant it.  Dividing Iris Dividing Iris is a pretty straightforward process as well. It is very similar to the act of transplanting other plants, but there are a few differences that make it require more effort.  Dividing keeps rhizomatous Iris blooming year after year and should be done every three to five years. First, the plants must be carefully dug up so as not to pierce the rhizomes below the ground. Sort out your roots and gently wash the soil off with a hose. The rhizomes should be divided so each section has a fan of stems sprouting out, and a good amount of healthy roots each. You can dig up and divide your Iris clumps right after flowering is finished for the year. For Tall Bearded Iris, divide in July and August for best results. Cut off dead flower stalks and shriveled leaves with a sharp knife or trimmers and then trim the remaining healthy leaves to about 4 to 6 inches in length. Check your rhizomes for any mushy, rotting, old and withering, and suspiciously diseased-looking sections and cut them out cleanly with a knife or sharp spade (sterilize your trimmers and spade between cuts to prevent the spread of anything from plant to plant). Dispose of these possible troublemakers far away from your garden.  Once cleaned up and sorted, choose the youngest, healthiest and most vigorous rhizomes for replanting. These are usually on the ends or outsides of the older central clumps. Replant as noted above for Transplanting new Iris, grouping the young roots to include one or two of the younger bunches of leaves each. Tamp down, water and mulch as noted above. Elegant Easy-To-Grow Iris! Both formal and upright, space-saving and modern, and beautifully fun and cheerful, the elegant Iris is a must-have classic garden perennial that we’re sure you’ll love including in your garden this year!  For those gardeners who already have a few Iris, you already know the ease and versatility of these delightful garden ornamentals! So start your own collection today for neighborhood bragging rights! With names like War Chief, Jurassic Park, Glamazon, Lord of the Rings, Fruit Cocktail, Gnu Again, Celestial Explosion, Disco Music and my favorite colored Iris Social Graces, you are sure to have a hard time picking just one! So head over to NatureHills.com to check out all the gorgeous Iris we have available for shipping today! Check back often because growers are constantly offering new and exciting varieties and colors every year! We ship your plants at the right time of the season and at the perfect planting time for your area!  Happy Planting and Transplanting With Nature Hills!