Iris ?setosa?

...mmmm.... are those leaves actually from that Iris?

The leaves look like the dreaded montbretia to me, now you suggest it could be a different plant to the iris. Though I've just seen that the questioner comes from Aberdeenshire, and montbretia's probably not hardy there.

Exactly what I was thinking Beattie.......I think the leaves are wrong for Iris setosa Owdboggy, and this one just happens to be growing through a patch of Montbretia, which looks like it could do with splitting.

thanks for ur replies but are u saying that these are 2 plants iris setosa and montbretia?

Yes that is correct Aimankay

Never looked at the leaves, just the flower. Not even sure it is Iris setosa flower, certainly an Iris though.

Thanks again but can anyone shed some light what is splitting?

Splitting is dividing up the plant as it is overcrowded. You dig up the plant, take off some of the outer, vigorous bits and replant them.

If that is montbretia, as I suspect it is, if you try to pull some up you will get a handful of leaves and maybe a corm (a bit like a flattened bulb) or two, leaving a long chain of smaller corms to grow in its place. Montbretia spreads crazily so you may have trouble getting rid of the bits you don't want. (You did say you have lots of it.) I've been eradicating it from a couple of flowerbeds and that takes repeated, obsessive digging over and incinerating the dug up pieces. Montbretia spreads via the corms which range from 1" across to speck sized, any roots left behind, and by seeds so it's really a thug!

On the other hand, a friend's family take some home to Lancashire almost every year and can't get it through the winter, which is why I wondered if what you have could be montbretia, as it appears not to be terribly hardy. Or perhaps my friend's family have "brown thumbs". :-)

If you look closely at the leaves Aiman...you may see flattened looking flower buds forming...in a type of herringbone pattern...these are the flower buds. As Beattie says, it can multiply quite quickly and then the corms are restricted by each other...leaves develop but no flowers...it is the type of plant too that seems to drain the soil of goodness and leaves it dry and dusty. There are new types now not quite so thuggish and with larger and more beautiful flowers. Have a look at the crocosmias or montbretias on this site.

Beattie we are still trying to get rid of montbretia from our Garden after 20 years. We had temperatures of -15° last winter that doesn't seem to have any effect on it at all. It really is a thug and a problem to get rid of it doesn't help that one of our neighbours thinks it's wonderful so it creeps through the hedge.

I'm going with the brown thumbs theory then, if montbretia is hardy after all.

They do not thrive here and I certainly do not have 'brown thumbs.' They grow but generally are not the thugs that other people find them to be.
Still trying to decide what the Iris is.

It's a plaguey weed here, spreads all over the coast paths and headlands. It's classified as a "Noxious Weed" in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia. Landowners have to control it by law.

I love it! It can be a nuisance but if you work at it, it's a really cheerful addition of colour to the garden. Every Autumn, I dig it up and split.

I dig it up and incinerate!