Getting Rid Of Iris Flowers

It amazes me that people want to get rid of flowers. LOL Isn't there a meadow or field in all of TEXAS that someone can plant these in? Would be a good project for Girl and Boy Scouts...
Make America beautiful where you can. GG Vi

You will succeed with the black tarp, but it will take more than one year. Make sure you spread it about two feet wider than the irises. Cover the tarp with a mulch or gravel or concrete pavers. You can put dirt on the irises first so that the tarp has nothing pokey under it. Irises can also find it hard to live if they get mown every week, but the clippings would be toxid I think. Keep the tarp on for two years, watch and if they are still coming up, re-tarp or pounce and dig every sprout before it's two inches tall. You will win this thing. There is a pest iris in the West called yellow flag iris that invades wetlands and I had some of that. A worthy opponent. God bless you. --Kim

gosh i wish i lived close i would come and dig them up and bring them here.

Hi, They are definately not easy to dig up. I was trying to dig some up today, and I gave up. I like your idea of freecycle. I think I will try that. Loretta

Try posting a free ad at the grocery store or on Freecycle for "you dig" iris. If someone takes the time to come get free plants, they will probably try and get every piece.

Thank you for the answers. I will keep digging.

Or, if you can't dig them all up, try putting something like a thick tarp over the top of them to block out all the sunlight. This should kill them by next year. Digging them up should be pretty easy, though. Irises like to grow near the surface, almost with their rhizomes growing out of the dirt a little. Good luck!

Irises grow out of rizomes -- they look like hairy, stringy roots. You have to dig all that up or they will keep coming back.