CULT: late season planting?

Betty tells me she is still putting adult irises in the ground.
Betty, are you planting intact root ball, or trimming tops & roots, same as usual planting time? You've mentioned straw mulch - do you cover the entire plant or just the soil?
Any of the rest of you have time to share experience with planting this late in the season (i.e., about a month before the unprotected soil might freeze & stay frozen for awhile). 

What do you do re: protection?
After the experience of planting relatively small seedlings out the fall before the disastrous spring freeze a couple of years ago, I certainly won't do that again without covering them for the winter with Reemay or equivalent.
But I have found some hired help, & now have some ground worked up across the creek that is actually <soil> (not rocks!), where I would like to line out some older seedlings.
I have so little experience planting in real soil, I'm not sure how to proceed <g>. 
--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.DiscoverET.org/etis>
Region 7, Kentucky-Tennessee <http://www.aisregion7.org>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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