Irises

When cleaning up the garden, make sure you remove dead foliage. These irises have dead leaves and other debris around their bases, which is a magnet to snails. Too cold for snails? Not here! I found several.

The second picture shows what the irises look like after all of the dead foliage has been removed. I always feel that after I remove the dead stuff and have pruned a plant that it heaves a big sigh of relief and can breath better--I know they look better. I normally don't cut back frost damaged plants just yet, but this geranium had grown over the top of some of the irises. If we have more frost, then the geranium will have more damage, but it is a good-sized plant and will come back just fine.