My garden is in the midst of a major upheaval as the municipality is reconstructing a superannuated wood stave storm sewer that runs across it. Since last fall, life has been a continual round of lifting plants that are in the way. Among the treasures I particularly hoped to save was a large clump of an exceptionally beautiful Pacific coast iris, with flowers of a nearly white, silvery blue. Ten days ago,I was successful in digging the clump up and have planted it in a large bulb crate for the duration. But of course, any amount of the clump broke off, leaving me with a mass of small divisions. I have treated these much as you would cuttings of other plants. They were cut up into small pieces of rhizome, each with a single growing point, and the leaves cut back to only an inch or two, then dibbled into a flat of soil, the whole watered well afterwards. A week later many of these tiny divisions are already showing signs of active growth, as evidenced by the growth of new foliage. It's too early to be sure of success, but early indications are that a good many will survive. The Pacific coast irises mostly hale from summer-dry climates, and new growth is initiated in the fall when temperatures fall and a little rain starts to come down. As with many other plants, division when new growth starts is the key to success. Divisions of other PC irises taken in the past in early summer just after flowering were very slow to establish. PS: during The Lifting of the Clump, the original label turned up. It's Iris thompsonii (or so the label says), sown in 1992. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada