Anne Donnelly writes
Hi all,

When I tidy the pond in a few weeks time I am going to need to remove
some of the flag iris before they take over.

However, from experience they are difficult to remove. Normally, I use
a garden fork to dig out stubborn roots but I don't want to risk
tearing the pond liner.

Has anyone any tips for removing them?

I just heave them out, one rhizome at a time - the rhizomes break off
easily. They're a lot easier than in soil because they haven't so much
to get their roots into. In detail - tug a plant till a rhizome appears
within grabbing difference, break it off and pull. Repeat. Expect to get
wet and muddy ;-)

I also had a team of volunteers clearing a large amount of bulrushes
from a small lake - they were trying to take the rushes and leave the
iris, even so, we lost a considerable number of iris with no apparent
difficulty ;-)
--
Kay