From Gardening Wiki
The iris garden may be made a beautiful place the year round by using no other flowers. The bloom of Iris pumila, Iris cristata, the German, Spanish, English, Siberian and Japan irises and the blue and yellow flags will be continuous from April into July, but before and after some of the foliage will be attractive.
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IRISES
"As the Iris to the Bluebell, as the Heather to the Ling, As the Sunshine to the Twilight, so is Summer to the Spring" - ALAN B. HAIG BROWN.
I have thought it best to deal with some of the Rhizomatous Irises in this page, as well as with the Bulbous. After all, rhizomes can be broken into pieces for increase of stock, just as one detaches offsets from bulbs. And the inexperienced gardener (or perhaps ' semi-educated ' would be the more suitable term) looks upon all Irises as bulbous plants, so would miss the ' Germans etc., and wonder what had become of them. No critic will be so captious, I hope, as to dislike a well-cultivated bulb garden because there are rhizomes, corms, or tubers in it as well as positive bulbs.
Some Irises require sunshine combined with ample moisture, conditions often offered by water-margins and bogs ; or these will succeed in deeply built rockeries, where crags and slabs so shelter the soil as to keep it from drying at base.
IRISES FOR DAMP SOIL, IN SUNSHINE
IRIS KEMPFERI or JAPANESE. Innumerable lovely self shades and blends. Flowering in July and August.
IRIS FCETIDISSIMA. The Gladwyn Iris. Brown-purple flowers, followed by pods bearing scarlet seeds, these being greatly valued for drying off for the winter vases. Will flourish also in semi-shade.
IRIS MONNIERI. Yellow, tall. June and July.
IRIS PsEUDO-Acorus. The common Yellow Water Flag. Tall. May and June. There is a primrose variety, and a kind with silver-variegated foliage.
IRIS SIBIRICA. Siberian Irises are white or blue, or Hue, cream and violet blends. They are often 4 feet tall, and make lovely masses during June and July.
IRIS TECTORUM. The Japanese Roof Iris. Blue or white. Suitable also for dry borders and rockeries, but comes finest when in damp ground and full sunshine.
IRIS FULVA. Bronze-red. June and July. Medium height.
IRIS OCHROLEUCA GlGANTEA.
Yellow and white ; a magnificent garden ornament.
Many a neglected, weedy, wet-soil garden could be transformed into a superb summer scene by the aid of Irises, such as the above, in the open positions, arranged in big groups, separated by ' carpet ' spaces of Pansies, with Solomon's Seals and Daffodils for a spring effect among these, certain Liliums (see Chapter VII) and Montbretias, with Meadow Saffrons beneath, for autumn. And the shady positions in wet gardens, those eye-offending puzzles, even the miserable end borders of slanted ground under deciduous trees, can have their fair flowers too.
IRISES FOR DAMP SOIL BENEATH TREES
IRIS FCETIDISSIMA. The GladIRIS GERMANICA. Similarly
wyn Iris. Treated for the majority of the
IRIS PSEUDO-ACORUS. The tall plants, but some planted per-
Yellow Flag. Manently in slightly raised
IRIS K^EMPFERI. Japanese if beds.
Grown in pots elsewhere and
sunk in the soil when budding.
It will be observed that the individualities among Irises are as great as among human families or nationalities. Generally speaking, the Iris is a sunlover, and there is danger of bulbs decaying when they are exposed to wet during winter as well as during the summer-time in which many species require it. But every chance of beautifying the worst places in our gardens ought to be tried : for which reason flower enthusiasts should experiment with bulbs, and not grudge the cost of a few failures when a few fresh triumphs will win them renown as well as pleasure.
The gardens that give trouble are not always wet and shady ; there are those of light soil, sun-baked, perhaps on hill-sides where moisture runs away, or hill-tops that are nearer fierce sun than are valleys. Well the Iris family can send individuals to even their aid.
IRISES FOR HOT ARID GARDENS
IRIS TECTORUM.
The Japanese CRIMEAN IRISES CHAMCEIRIS
Roof Iris. Blue, also white.
CYANEA, blue-violet, I foot,
CRIMEAN IRISES These vary in height from a few inches to half violet-blue, I foot ;
ALBA, ivory,
FORMOSA,
GRACILIS,
a yard, the variety Venacensis grey-heliotrope, 9 inches ; Lu-
(violet) often reaching that TESCENS, yellow, 15 inches ;
stature, but the majority are MELPOMENE, claret-red, 9
about 10 inches, and the most inches ;
ALBIENSIS ALBA,
suitable for flat ground in heat. Cream, iS inches;
ORANGE The lesser varieties prefer a QUEEN, gold and orange, I
rockery, where the soil does not foot ;
URANUS, violet-blue and become too sand-like. The crimson, 12 inches, following suggest some admirable colours.
As for the Irises that can be grown in the sunny, well-drained borders in most localities, and in sunny rockeries with even greater security, their name is legion. We all know the Poor Man's Orchid, or Spanish Iris, one of the cheapest of all floral charmers, so there is no need to say more, except to advise the trial of the best named varieties, which any renowned bulb merchant will supply upon request. This Iris is finest when left out for three years, yet it is not absolutely certain to survive winters, so is often lifted and stored each autumn. I never treated my ' Spaniards ' so, because I hold the theory that all flowers that can be induced to live entirely out of doors should be made to do so ; and I am convinced that any failures with mine resulted from the loosening of the roothold by fork or hoe, an indignity that the Iris will not endure. English Irises are larger, handsomer, and longer lasting both on the plant and in the cut state. Their bulbs ought to be lifted every second year, unless soil and climate conditions are perfect, and, even so, the overcrowded clumps will not throw the best blooms.
There is interest in some remarks made on the English Iris by M'Intosh, the famous gardener, in 1840 :
'The flower is coming into repute, both from the beauty of its blossoms and their great variety, for, from the natural blue of the wild flowers, it has sported into every shade of white, violet, rose, blush, lilac, blue, purple, red, cherry, and crimson, both self colours and shaded, mottled and striped, in the most beautiful manner. It is very easy (according to Mr. John Salter, in the Horticultural Journal) to manage this Iris, as it will grow in almost any soil, but succeeds best in a well-sweetened compost, formed of sandy loam, with a portion of leaf-mould or very rotten manure from an old melon-pit. The beds should be exposed to the east or the north-east. Every corm has one, two or more offsets, and in a general way it is advisable for the roots to remain two seasons in the same ground. It produces abundance of seed, which ripens at the end of July and beginning of August, when it may be gathered, dried, and sown in September or October in drills in a very light sandy soil. The following spring the young plants will appear above ground, and will form, during the first season, corms about the size of garden peas. These should not be disturbed till the third year, when they may be removed to the bed where they are to bloom, which will, sometimes be in the fourth, but more usually in the fifth or sixth year, from the time of sowing. It will forward the bulbs to top-dress the beds with fresh earth in August.
This long extract from an old-world gardening book will serve as sufficient instruction for the seedlingraising of Irises in general, though modern culture is more often pursued in cold frames than in the garden ground.
IRISES FOR SUNNY WELL-DRAINED BORDERS OR ROCKERIES
IRIS TUBEROSA. Quaker's Head Iris. Green and black.
IRIS SUSIANA. The Mourning Iris. Deep purplish-brown and black.
IRIS MISSOURIENSIS. China blue.
IRIS MONSPUR. Cambridge blue, light blue. Tall.
IRIS MONSPUR PREMIER. Violet. Tall.
IRIS MONSPUR DOROTHY FOSTER. Violet-blue. Tall.
IRIS SETOSA. Violet.
IRIS FLAVESCENS. Yellow.
IRIS SPURIA. Blue. Three feet.
IRIS PALLID A. Purple and lavender. Tall.
IRIS VERSICOLOR. Lilac-purple. Also florists' varieties.
IRIS FLORENTINA. White, lilac shaded.
IRIS PERSIC A. White, blue, purple, gold blend. Early.
IRIS HISTRIO. Blue purple. Early.
IRIS RETICULATA. The Netted Iris. Violet and gold. Early.
IRIS SINDJARENSIS. Light blue. Early.
IRIS ALATA. The Scorpion Iris. Pale blue and yellow. Winter blooming.
IRIS STYLOS A-SPECIOSA. Blue and gold.
The last six Irises are winter or earliest spring flowers, and can be hastened by having glass shading of any kind over them when their buds are just appearing and till the blooms fade. Or these, also Spanish Irises, may be potted, from September to November, five bulbs, 2 inches deep, in a six-inch pot. The compost should be a blend of equal parts of loam, peat, leaf-mould and sand, but Spanish Irises can do without peat. So too, if necessary, can English Irises, which should go three into a seven-inch pot, or singly in a five-inch one.
The pots should be put into frames, windows, or cold greenhouses, the soil in them only just covered by coco-nut fibre refuse to keep it from drying too rapidly. When flower spikes are forming the Irises may be put in a greenhouse where the temperature is moderate. As the flowers fade, water must be lessened, discontinued as the last bloom dies, and then the pots should be placed on their sides on sunny shelves for a few weeks. The old bulbs can be dropped into corners in the rockery, but fresh ones must be bought for next season's potting.
Many of the rhizomatous, as distinct from the bulbous Irises notably German Irises: make handsome pot and tub plants, but should not be planted lower than just below the soil, which will not require peat ; also they are best sunk in their pots in cinder beds out of doors.
The depth to plant Iris rhizomes or bulbs, out of doors, will vary according to their she and the situation. Three inches deep is a good average. In very light sandy borders a greater depth is often desirable : in wet, claggy ground rhizomes are usually placed only just below the surface. Spanish Irises and the winter-blooming Irises will grow and bloom in mossfibre and sea-shell, in china bowls without drainage.
It is surprising how few persons grow the winter Irises in window-boxes, pots on window-sills, or in ornamental garden urns. A show of flower may be kept up from November to April, by combining Irises Alata, Stylosa-speciosa, Reticulata, and Histrio. They associate beautifully with Winter Crocuses.
Most Irises should remain in beds or borders untouched as to roots until they are seen to be weakening, when lifting, division, and replanting elsewhere, or in renewed soil in the same place, should be undertaken. That is the great secret prevent the roots of the bulbs and rhizomes from receiving any disturbance at other times. Mulching is safe ; a layer of old cow-manure in October protects, or one in February stimulates, Weak liquid manures can be given when buds are beginning to colour.
Seldom do we see properly grown German Irises, or any of the chief beauties of their family. Nine persons out of ten are, I believe, unaware that these Flags are ever anything but purple ! A bed of the mauves, blues, brown terra-cottas, orange and gold, crimsonpurple, and indescribably exquisite white and ' blends ' might raise many a villa front garden far above the commonplace.
The Iris is very suitable for adorning roof gardens, in artificial or banked-up beds and borders, in rockery mounds, pots and tubs, and also in old wall pockets and simulated gutterings. Arrange for there to be 9 inches of soil for the roots, then the aperture or ' pocket ' need not be wide. The Japanese Roof Iris,
I. tectorum is best of all, in blue or white, but I have grown the January to March blossoming lavender-blue Iris stylosa in wall nooks, also the tiny species Iris Albiensi's alba, white, known usually as a dwarf Crimean Iris, I believe, and the amethyst-blue Iris cristata.
If Spanish Irises were more mingled with other kinds of bulbs in front garden borders there would be no break in the flower-show between the late Narcissi and Tulips and the bedding-plants put out in June, or the host of herbaceous flowers that open during May and the following weeks would find themselves among graceful and beautifully coloured comrades.
It might well be recognized that Spanish and English Irises, the early white Florentine Iris, and some others, are plants that invalids may grow entirely in their rooms. The bulbs do not need to be hidden away in the dark or cinder-bed plunged, only to be kept cool, not dried up, yet not much watered, until growth starts : then any light airy place, out of direct sunshine, suits the plants ; finally, the flower-table in the sunny window may hold them.
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