"Chris J Dixon" wrote in message
...
Jeff Layman wrote:

There are very few invasive bulbs, particularly on clay soil. But one I
would particularly avoid is common muscari (grape hyacinth). If you have
good, free draining soil it will take over and is not easy to get rid of
as
the bulbs produce dozens of smaller bulblets when you dig them up. It also
self-seeds everywhere.

I'll second that.

At the other end of the scale, I was surprised to hear on GW that
the iris reticulata, which are currently looking very good, are
unlikely to show much next year. Were they being unduly
pessimistic?

Chris

A bit. In IME they tend to die away slowly. Small irises don't compare
with crocuses for reliability every year, unfortunately.

The real devil is Iris danfordiae. This has attractive yellow flowers but
it breaks up into much smaller bulblets after flowering. These never seem
to get to flowering size again. The usual advice is to plant them deeply
which prevents them breaking up. Didn't work when I tried it.

--

Jeff