[Casey76]

I inherited a bank of bearded iris when I bought my house.  I thought they were se spectacular that this year I bought a whole bunch of different cultivars for the "front garden" as  tubers about an inch and a half long in little pots (so some had leaves, and some had already flowered this year).

I've planted them in small groups on Sunday (30 May), and was wondering when it would be "safe" to trim the leaves.

Related question... I've seen some iris in the area where the leaved have been cut into points - is there a reason for this, or just aesthetics?

Thanks

[Debz]

The only leaves I ever trim are dead ones.  The rest I just leave to get on with it.  They are already pointy so why would you cut them into points?

[Trillium]

If you move iris while in growth, then they need their leaves trimmed back to minimize moisture evaporation while they settle their roots, and the points will ensure that rain or whatever won't linger on the open cut and start rot.

Any small leaves from small roots don't need to be cut back, but you really should do so for larger leaves or sections which flowered this year. Cut them back to about 4" with the point and water well. Root bits should be sitting just on the ground surface. The best feed for them are alfalfa pellets (not cubes) which you water in immediately after sprinkling to deter vermin. This will really boost plant health. The pellets are usually found with horse feed supplies, but if you can't find them use a fertilizer with higher last two numbers.

[Spana]

It also helps stop the wind blowing them out until they get a good hold.

They really are beautiful, you should have a wonderful display if you have a mass of them.
One of the show gardens at Chelsea this year had big white bowls/ tubs with copper coloured iris in them.  I've never thought of growing them that way but I'm going try it and I'm having a lovely time looking at all the Iris breeders web sites

[Casey76]

Thanks

Everyone around my way seems to have "shimmering blue" so I've bought a whole bumch of different colours 

The ones I inherited were amazing this year - some stems had 7 and 9 flowers!

[Spana]

Lucky you They are gob smackingly beautiful

[Debz]

Every day is a school day - many thanks Trillium as i didn't know that about trimming the leaves.