I have a question about Iris beds. I have several beds that I inherited when I purchased my large, wooded, country property. The previous owner had spent hundreds of dollars on prized Irises, and scattered them all around the property. Having loved Irises all my life, I was delighted to have these, even though there’s a lot of work involved in keeping them healthy and blooming.

One bed in particular is very large, not the usual clumps of irises that I have elsewhere. This bed is about 5 ft deep and 15 feet long, and the plants need to be divided. I thought this might be a nice chance for a bed makeover. I have listened to some of your other recordings and I got the idea that I need to intermingle my plants so that once the irises are gone (they bloom mid-may most years), and I am left with a big weed patch with Iris greens the rest of the year.

So I was thinking of mixing some ground cover plants, with some medium height plants that bloom later than the Irises. One ground cover I was considering to put in between the Irises is Euonymus fortunei Emerald Gaiety (Wintercreeper), but I am wondering if it is too invasive and might smother my Irises, do you know?
This is a very sunny spot, and I live in zone 7B outside Nashville, high humidity, heavy clay. Creeping plants in this region often gain 8-10″ of growth a day during summer.

Creeping Phlox might bloom too late, which is why I was thinking the variegated foliage might add interest to that area and smother weeds that are so prevalent in my region later in the year, but I don’t want to harm my Irises. I am open to suggestions and don’t mind suggestions with or without blooms. I was thinking of putting some Astrantia plants throughout the bed periodically too, to add late summer interest. I plan to divide these plants in August, and was hoping for some help to put me in the right direction.