It does not appear that either the name Iris dardanus or Iris x dardanus has been validly published in any of the International standard works, e.g. IPNI nor can I find it in Innes' standard reference work. I would be grateful if anyone can throw light on this, currently pseudo taxon. If a hybrid information on its reputed parentage would also be welcomed please. If the root system is, as described, similar to the rhyzomatic type Iris group then the correct position for planting is, as has already been suggested, just as close to surface level as possible with the rhyzome slightly proud of surface area. Generally amongst the 70 + taxa in our collection here in northern Scotland these Iris do not appreciate poor drainage and invariably rot and/or are frozen during the winter. The ideal time for moving or splitting up is immediately post flowering, this allows the plants to establish a full root system while soil temperatures remain warm during the late summer / early autumn. Splitting clumps in the spring often leads to poor or non existent flowering in their first year post removal. Invariably, unless the group includes two or more seed originated clones, seed set usually does not follow from within that taxon but may occur by pollination from related taxa, this is probably what occurred to produce this horticultural plant, it certainly does not seem to occur in nature anywhere in eastern Europe, Near East, Asia Minor or central Asia as far as I can ascertain but would gratefully welcome more info if anyone knows otherwise. Would that we could grow Scorpio - Juno Iris as well here, how ever often tried so far, all species just wither away in a year or two or three. If of interest, all our Iris taxa survived the worst winter in decades here experiencing temperatures in the range of - 25 C to - 31 C, probably aided by free drainage as most grow in basic glaciated granite sands and gravels with a pH of 4.5 to 5.0 Iain -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 7 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 171537 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len/ The Professional version does not have this message