I bought a house and put some raised beds in the yard, on top of what we thought (in very early spring) was just lawn. It turns out there were irises (small purple ones, I don't know the variety) there. They now grow up through the raised bed, and are crowding out the plants I put the bed in for. I love irises, and would love to move them someplace else, but the rhizomes are down through 8" of soil in the bed, plus however far below the surface they were to start with. I've tried to dig them up, and get lots and lots of root, but the rhizomes are almost all breaking off and coming up separately in a second dig. Any chance these rooty but rhizome free irises are going to survive? Should I just give up on this project and try to kill them off completely?

I bought a house and put some raised beds in the yard, on top of what we thought (in very early spring) was just lawn. It turns out there were irises (small purple ones, I don't know the variety) there. They now grow up through the raised bed, and are crowding out the plants I put the bed in for. I love irises, and would love to move them someplace else, but the rhizomes are down through 8" of soil in the bed, plus however far below the surface they were to start with. I've tried to dig them up, and get lots and lots of root, but the rhizomes are almost all breaking off and coming up separately in a second dig. Any chance these rooty but rhizome free irises are going to survive? Should I just give up on this project and try to kill them off completely?

What they mostly look like: Other side:

I bought a house and put some raised beds in the yard on top of what we thought (in very early spring) was just lawn. It turns out there were irises (small purple ones, I don't know the variety) there. They now grow up through the raised bed, and are crowding out the plants I put the bed in for. I love irises, and would love to move them someplace else, but the rhizomes are down through 8" of soil in the bed, plus however far below the surface they were to start with. I've tried to dig them up, and get lots and lots of root, but the rhizomes are almost all breaking off and coming up separately in a second dig. Any chance these rooty but rhizome free irises are going to survive? Should I just give up on this project and try to kill them off completely?

I bought a house and put some raised beds in the yard, on top of what we thought (in very early spring) was just lawn. It turns out there were irises (small purple ones, I don't know the variety) there. They now grow up through the raised bed, and are crowding out the plants I put the bed in for. I love irises, and would love to move them someplace else, but the rhizomes are down through 8" of soil in the bed, plus however far below the surface they were to start with. I've tried to dig them up, and get lots and lots of root, but the rhizomes are almost all breaking off and coming up separately in a second dig. Any chance these rooty but rhizome free irises are going to survive? Should I just give up on this project and try to kill them off completely?

I bought a house and put some raised beds in the yard on top of what we thought (in very early spring) was just lawn. It turns out there were irises (small purple ones, I don't know the variety) there. They now grow up through the raised bed, and are crowding out the plants I put the bed in for. I love irises, and would love to move them someplace else, but the rhizomes are down through 8" of soil in the bed, plus however far below the surface they were to start with. I've tried to dig them up, and get lots and lots of root, but the rhizomes are almost all breaking off and coming up separately in a second dig. Any chance these rooty but rhizome free irises are going to survive? Should I just give up on this project and try to kill them off completely?

I bought a house and put some raised beds in the yard on top of what we thought (in very early spring) was just lawn. It turns out there were irises (small purple ones, I don't know the variety) there. They now grow up through the raised bed, and are crowding out the plants I put the bed in for. I love irises, and would love to move them someplace else, but the rhizomes are down through 8" of soil in the bed, plus however far below the surface they were to start with. I've tried to dig them up, and get lots and lots of root, but the rhizomes are almost all breaking off and coming up separately in a second dig. Any chance these rooty but rhizome free irises are going to survive? Should I just give up on this project and try to kill them off completely?