db wrote:
Thanks for all your great advice. We're having one more cold night
(mid-30's)

You call that cold???? That's mild up here. :-)

then it looks like it'll be a bit warmer for awhile, so I'll
replant the IRISes and daffodil bulbs tomorrow. A few more questions if
you don't mind...

How much should I trim the old growth on the Irises? Can you recommend
a few brands/types of food I should try - and can I use the same food
for the daffs? When should I look to transplant the lillies in the
Spring, right after they come up?

Thanks again...

Trim to about 6". I've seen irises trimmed to less than this, but you
want a little bit of photosynthesis for as long as possible while the
tranpslants develop their roots.

When replanting, use a fertiliser low in nitrogen and high in phosphate,
low or zero in potassium. Blood-and-bone meal is very good, it's usually
3-15-0. Plain bone meal is also OK (usually 0-10-0). Mix a little into
the planting pit, and sprinkle some on top and water it in. No heavy
feeding at this time, all you want is to stimulate rooting.

In spring, a generic fertiliser such as 20-20-20 will work just fine.
Fancy brands aren't necessary unless your soil is low in minerals and
trace elements -- not likely, since you indicate that the garden was
flourishing when you bought the house. Make sure you buy a slow release
fertiliser, though, as plants will suck up all the nitrogen they can
get, the li'l gluttons, and a quick release fertiliser can kill ("burn")
them. Ie, do not use spring lawn fertiliser in the garden or flower
beds. Agricultural fertiliser is a good buy, it's much cheaper per pound
than the little boxes you buy at the nursery in the spring, and it's
designed for single or at most double application per growing season, at
relatively low rates (a few pennies cost difference matters a lot to a
farmer.)

Some people will tell you that organic fertilisers are better, but apart
from ecological considerations (eg, recycling manure), there's little to
support that view. Plants don't have ideological problems about where
their food comes from. That being said, compost is gold for a garden. It
is a low-grade fertiliser, which is good, but its main value is the
addition of organic matter to the soil. It also serves as an insulator
during freeze up when used as a mulch, which I recommend you do at this
time.

HTH