We inherited a bunch of iris (and day lilies) from the previous house owner. So beautiful! Such lovely delicate artifacts of nature! Oooohhhh...

Yeah. Right. So, many years later, I have learned that, not only am I able to just chop through the silly things with a spade, I MUST do so every 2-4 years or the freakin' things take over whatever spot they're sitting in. Not in a pretty way. Also: estimating the number of viable plants before digging is futile. I dig 'em up, put half (maybe a third... maybe a quarter) back, and spread the rest out. Lather, rinse, repeat every few years. And sometimes a patch will die out for no reason I can figure out. Grrr...

Deb really likes them, though. And DAMN, they're pretty when in full bloom! :-)