More Seacliff Irises

by Kathleen Sayce

I've posted several notes over the years about wild Iris tenax populations on the coasts of southern Washington and northern Oregon. Today I have photos of I. tenax from a new location. These plants grow on cliffs southeast of the Neahkahnie sea cliffs meadow population and aren't more than a half mile from that lovely meadow. Like that meadow, they grow on Miocene basalt cliffs several hundred feet above the Pacific Ocean. I saw more than ten clumps, battling agoraphobia to hang over the retaining wall to look for flowering plants. 

Iris tenax flowering on a basalt ledge over the Pacific Ocean

A report of a Canyon Wren, more than a hundred miles from its normal range in north Tillamook County, Oregon, brought me to this location, via eBird and a local WhatsApp birding group. I heard two partial trills, and one full song. Traffic on Highway 101 wiped out more than two-thirds of the listening time. No good views of this wren, sorry to say.

Pacific Ocean in background on a sunny, mild day

This I. tenax population has dark pink-lavender flowers with wide petals. It has persisted in my garden for years, and seeds occasionally make their way to the SPCNI seed catalog, open in December and January each year. Getting closer to these cliff-growing plants requires climbing gear!

The image below is of flowering irises from the nearby meadow, growing in my garden. These were grown from wild-collected seed. 

Iris tenax flowers, grown from the Neahkahnie sea cliff population

Other wildflowers in bloom on the cliffs include crevice alumroot (Heuchera micrantha), spring gold (Lomatium martindalei), hairy checkermallow (Sidalcea hirtipes) and giant Indian paintbrush (Castilleja miniata). That small slice of blue water in the middle image says it all: it was a lovely day on the Pacific Ocean. 

Salt-tolerant Pacific Iris, or Choosing Voles & Birds Over Cats

by Kathleen Sayce

Mowing the upper edge of the marsh along the Washington State U.S. coast on Memorial Weekend, I found a flowering iris growing among taller grasses. 

A saltwater-tolerant PCI in the upper salt marsh

Lest you think I was mowing native and/or sensitive salt marsh species, let me reassure you:  I was mowing ivy, gorse, and reed canary grass. The last is one of a group of big grasses with thuggish tendencies, and the first two are obnoxious weeds in many areas. These species grow along the upper edge of the salt marsh, and collectively tolerate salt water on the highest storm tides each winter. I dodged two native plants:  seawatch clumps (Angelica lucida, a tall carrot family wildflower) and edible thistle stems (Cirsium edule). 

Almost hidden in taller grasses, this PCI was a delightful surprise

This iris is a small, species-like Pacifica iris of unknown parentage which looks most like a PCI of unknown origin that I planted in the mid-1990s, though that plant has larger, wider petals and darker flowers.

Salt water covers this spot several times each winter on the highest storm tides—it grows in a saltwater inundation area. Iris tenax and I. douglasiana both live in salt spray zones along the coast. I will keep the taller grasses down around it, and see how long it lives here. The salt tolerance is a surprise. 

How did it get across the driveway and into the marsh? Voles are the probable suspects; they live abundant and prolific lives in the marsh and garden—and in our garage, cars, and occasionally, house. It is likely that a vole filled its cheeks with ripe iris seeds and dashed off across the driveway to stash them in the marsh.

Get a cat, you say. 

My reply:  I would rather have a garden with ground-nesting birds. 

There are two areas in the garden where Spotted Towhee and White-crown Sparrow nest. The adults pop out to complain when I mow nearby, and grow quite insistent if I weed too near nests, which tend to be under large clumps of Pacifica iris. Which of course means weeds grow unchecked in those areas for much of the summer, and that favors voles! 

Waiting for Rain on the West Coast

by Kathleen Sayce 

The astronomical calendar has rotated into autumn: Rain and cooler weather bring mushrooms, migrating birds and salmon, and new growth for many types of irises.  Here on the West Coast, it’s time to plan fall lifting, dividing, and replanting of Pacifica irises.

Wait for your plants to show fresh white roots that are at least two inches long. If you have access to irrigation water, water thoroughly a few times in September and October to help encourage Pacifica irises to break summer dormancy. Watering is needed only when replanting, and not weekly thereafter (unless it doesn’t rain for weeks and the soil dries out). 

Monitor weather for rain, and wait for the soil to dampen to a depth of at least six inches (or irrigate your garden). When new iris roots emerge, start planning times to rework and plant flower beds. Better yet, consider scheduling a planting party! Along the coast, this is usually October into November. 

Take time to replenish soil coverings (aka mulches), and amend soils with nutrients and carboniferous materials like compost, ramial, and biochar. Any time you dig a plant hole, add some carbon, work it into the hole, and then replant. My preferred carbon-rich materials and sequence (bottom to top) are: biochar, compost, ramial, wood chips. 

Although I make my own compost, I never have enough. Ants, mice and voles haul seeds around, and seem to like dragging grass seeds and some dicots into my compost piles. If you can get it, compost from methane digesters is seed free. 

When I rework beds, I layer biochar and compost over the open garden bed that is ready to replant. Then I plant into this area, working the carbon materials down and around each hole and the roots. I may also add more compost on top, below the top layers (ramial and wood chips). 

Ramial is a freshly shredded blend of hardwood stems and leaves, like shrub and tree branches. During fall cleanup I shred hardwood branches before leaf fall, and put these chips out as a top dressing on garden beds. This mix breaks down easily without needing extra nitrogen, and helps boost carbon in the soil. It’s almost as good as foliar sprays for plant health. Like compost, I never have enough ramial. 

Biochar is charcoal, pretreated with compost to inoculate it with microorganisms, and is usually ground into a coarse powder. It helps soils retain water and nutrients, and promotes good soil structure. It’s especially a boost for beneficial soil fungi, which helps promote healthy roots in Pacifica iris.

Perennials thrive with wood chip mulches. We have trees, which regularly need limbs removed. I chip them, and turn the resulting wood chip pile to compost. Fungal mycelia appear throughout the wood piles within a few weeks. When I add these chips to an iris bed, fungi are coming with them. Fungi are beneficial for both the soil and my plants. 

If wood chips are too coarse when fresh, run them through a chipper.  (NOTE: I have learned the hard way to wear a mask when chipping—my lungs do not care to inhale wood dust, fine bits of leaves, shredded fungi, or compost fragments. For extra protection, put a bandana over the top of a N95 mask. Eye protection is a good idea too.)

Fine wood chips can also be added to a compost pile. They provide a coarse source of carbon and help break down food scraps for optimal compost texture.

Other soil amendments to add to garden soils during the fall include: eelgrass, dried kelp meal, ground oyster shells, feather meal, and mineral soil amendments. 

Eelgrass mats wash up on the boat ramp at the local port, which gardeners can collect. We have enough rain that we can add it to garden beds, on top of the wood chips, and know the rain will dilute the salt. Otherwise, lay the eelgrass out to compost, let rain wash the pile for a month or two, then spread it.

Winter is coming, but before that season comes fall--the best time to plant, replant and transplant on the West Coast. Enjoy the season!

Golden Iris Flowering in my Garden

 By Kathleen Sayce

I wrote about the golden iris misses in my garden during my search for Iris innominata plants and or seeds from various sources in October 2021. Since then Tom Fischer, a member of the Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris, took pity on me and shared seeds from his plants with me two years ago, and this spring, here's the result--flowers!

Iris innominata flowering in my garden with good dark yellow base color and red veins. 

I have several pots, so my next garden project is figuring out where to grow my own patch of this species. It is going to take a few years for my plants to come close to their parents, but as we know, gardening is all about patience. 

A beautiful clump of golden iris in Tom Fischer's garden.  

All it took was 27 years of patience and a determination to keep trying! Thanks, Tom!

(Still) Searching for Iris innominata

 by Kathleen Sayce

A conversation with a lapsed and now renewed member of Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris (SPCNI) reminded me of my long search for Iris innominata by seed and plant form for my own garden.

I. innominata x ? in my garden

In 2010, I joined the SPCNI field trip to southwest Oregon, where I was able to see tens of thousands of Pacifica irises flowering in the wild, including thousands of I. innominata. Flower colors varied from pale yellow to intense, dark golden yellow, almost orange, with veining from dark yellow to red. This spurred me to grow this lovely iris in my own garden.

I. innominata in Southwest Oregon, 2010

The search for I. innominata plants or seeds began innocuously. As a new member of SPCNI, I ordered seeds from the SPCNI annual seed exchange. I also ordered from SIGNA’s seed exchange. Plants were purchased from a variety of sources in the western United States. All were labeled I. innominata. 

Meanwhile I read about Iris x aureonympha ‘Golden Nymph’, an early garden cross between I. douglasiana and I. innominata by Edith Hardin English in her Seattle, Washington garden. She liked the golden flowers but disliked the short stems and the ease with which flowers melted in heavy rain, sentiments with which I completely agree! 

 The SIGNA Checklist of Hybrids described Iris x aureonympha ‘Golden Nymph’ as “Soft golden yellow flower with veining reduced to markings of deeper yellow, two flowers to each stem." The name was published as I. aureonympha ‘Golden Nymph’ in the National Horticulture Magazine, October 1948, and reprinted in the Bulletin of the American Iris Society, p. 40-42, #125, April 1952.” [page 146, SIGNA Checklists of Iris] The article was reprinted in the Almanac for SPCNI, Spring 1977 with a note by Jean Witt that English was the first person in the Unied States to hybridize I. innominata. Note that all PCI species easily hybridize with each other, so wild crosses between I. douglasiana and I. innominata are likely, as both live in Southwest Oregon. 

But I digress—back to the outcome of my search through seed exchanges and nurseries for I. innominata: 

Three times the plants I purchased turned out to be I. douglasiana or other Pacifica iris selections, none matching I. innominata for plant habit and leaf characters even when flowers were (rarely) yellow. I retained a lovely I. douglasiana x unknown PCI cross with a sturdy short grow habit, of unregistered name ‘Burnt Sugar.’

I. pseudacorus sold as I. innominata. Not!

Four times the seeds also were not I. innominata, and tended to undistinguished lavenders. The most spectacular fails were two: A plant from a rock garden nursery that was actually I. pseudacorus, identified when it flowered, and a seed lot that grew into Spuria irises of unknown flower color but unmistakable growth form. My garden is too cool and dry in summer for spurias to thrive, so out it went.

Iris 'Burnt Sugar', unregistered Pacifica iris with I. douglasiana genes

Debby Cole took pity on me after a few years and sent me a few seeds from one of her yellow-flowered innominata-like plants, which upon flowering from seed in my yard we concluded were most likely to be I. innominata x I. bracteata. These had short stems, yellow flowers and the narrow dark green leaves of I. innominata. The veins on the falls were reddish brown. 

Another I. innominata x ? grown from seed 

The plants lived for years in my garden, flowering well until a hedge grew up that shaded them a bit too much. If I can find them this fall, I intend to move the plants to the wild lawn at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge in a few weeks, in hopes that they will enjoy that locale. The trigger for this remembrance was that newly returned SPCNI member casually mentioning that he grows I. innominata in his own garden. All I can say is he’s lucky. I haven’t managed to get it, let alone grow it!

Dry Summers, Summer Water and Pacifica Iris

Kathleen Sayce

Pacifica Iris, or PCI, thrive in a mediterranean climate––that’s a small ‘m’ for the climate, not the geographic area. This climate type has a wet fall-winter-spring period, with rain starting in early fall to winter, and ending in late winter to late spring, depending on latitude. In the Pacific Northwest, cool wet weather can last from six to ten months, and very dry weather (no measurable precipitation) two to six months. Most years, the August-September period is very dry. Going south on the West Coast, the wet season shrinks until in southern California, it lasts a few weeks in midwinter, and the dry season lasts most of the year. 

Iris chrysophylla x I. douglasiana, a large leaved, branched flowered form that flowers in June. 

It’s August now, and that means the West Coast is well into the annual dry season, from northern Baja California, Mexico to somewhere along the British Columbia coast. My garden is dry, and I’ve started supplemental water to some plants, but my PCI do not get supplemental water. The last of the PCI are ripening seeds, most have already open seed pods, and they are toughing out the dry season in a warm dormancy. Roots are not growing. These irises wait out the dry weather.

Seed pods from the same plant as above, 2 months later. 

I could clean up plants at this time, but I have learned that if the dry season is prolonged, then PCI will abandon more leaves, and I’ll have to take those leaves off later. So I limit my cleanup to removing vigorous weeds, dead plants, and any plants I want to remove from a particular spot. There’s no replanting this time of year. Plants that are dug out now will not reestablish if replanted. If I were watering regularly, I might be able to transplant in a few weeks. 

On watering PCI in summer, opinions are mixed. Some say no water at all. Many  nursery growers have found that PCI are fine with regular summer watering. As Secretary for the Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris, I’ve been offered many opinions from members all over the world on this subject, and have concluded that PCI do not like hot, alkaline water. Cool, neutral to acidic water is fine. I prefer not to drag hoses or sprinklers, so I do not water them, though my plants would probably be bigger and have more flowers if I did supply water all summer. 

Iris tenax, flowering mid June, on one of the last rainy days of the year. 

Late summer is a curious time in the garden:  Flowers are still abundant on many perennial and annual plants, which will keep flowering with supplemental water into fall. Butterflies make the rounds on warm days, feeding on those flowers. The end of second flight of Anise Swallowtails is still underway. Margined White butterflies are on their fourth or fifth adult generation for the year. Soon, the occasional south-migrating Monarch butterfly may pass through. Even these plants are shedding leaves, setting seed, getting ready for summer’s end. Meanwhile, fall flowering bulbs and perennials are starting to show buds and first flowers. 

The clear signal that fall is coming is birds migrating south. I live on a large estuary, Willapa Bay, where tens of thousands of shorebirds, ducks and other waterfowl fly through each fall. Shorebird numbers are picking up from week to week. Bald Eagles fledged their chicks; the adults will leave by September for inland rivers, to fish for fall migrating salmon. I hear the fledgling eagles call for their parents by mid August, looking for those formerly attentive parents.

New visitors, two Indian peacocks, check out the flower beds. The turquoise, silver and blue eyes in the tail feathers would make a striking PCI flower.  

 This week, there was a new bird species in the yard. It’s not migratory, and yes, it is introduced. Two Indian peacocks wandered into the yard. Sightings have traveled up and down the bay for several miles this summer, and this week, it was our turn for a visit. The editor of our bulletin asked me a few weeks ago about my hybridizing goals for PCI. A PCI with the brilliance of a peacock’s tail seems a very worthy goal!

Perils of Procrastination among Pacifica Iris

Kathleen Sayce
March 29, 2016

For those perfect gardeners among us, no pot of Iris seedlings ever goes a year or two too long before being separated and planted out. 

I'd like to know who they are, because this year I learned what happens when a styrofoam box of Pacifica Iris seedlings grows a year too long before division:  They grow their new roots into the box walls, out the bottom and into whatever medium is beneath. If the potting mix is to their liking, they also completely fill the mix with roots. 

A year past optimal planting out size, this dense mass of Pacifica Iris seedlings was not about to move to a new home easily. 

Thus, there I was on a sunny early spring day between storms, prying plants formerly seen as fragile out of what was formerly a porous and well drained potting mix of coarse perlite and half potting soil.  

First I tugged, then I tried to dig out some of the medium and gain some working space.  A few frustrating minutes followed with very little movement towards releasing these irises from their starter home. 

Sign of a thriving patch of Iris seedlings:  roots through the box into the gravel beneath. 

Then I resorted to my new favorite tool, a Japanese hori nori (gardening knife) and used the serrated edge to cut between plants, knowing I would cut through some.  Then I got tough, and held the box down with one foot and pried with both hands. Finally, most of the soil and roots emerged in a solid mass, which I was able to cut, not pry, apart. 

On the second box, I simply cut it open along the corners and took the mass of roots and plants out, and then cut them apart. 

Remains of the planting box to the left, a portion of the root mass to the right

Then I checked the plants from last year, which will go out soon, and sure enough, these young Pacifica Iris have also grown through the box into the ground and into the walls. Only a third the size of the older seedlings, they should come out a little more easily. . . 

Last year's seedlings are also ready to go, but I might not need to stand on my head to get these out, if I move them soon. 

There are undoubtedly some choice seedlings buried in the masses I planted––which is probably the worst of the unintended consequences. 

Why use styrofoam boxes for seeds? In the first few years of growing irises from seed, I found that dark plastic pots heat up in the summer, and when combined with normal summer drought, many seedlings died. I grow larger seedlings faster in styrofoam, which I deduce keeps the roots cooler. I may need to rethink the larger-faster-healthier choice and go back to slower, smaller and a little less vigorous. Or get out in the garden and repot them more promptly!

Reds and Yellows for the gaudy corner of the PCI garden

By Kathleen Sayce

Reds and yellows combine to make particularly richly colored flower displays. Here's a sampling of a few PCI hybrids in this group. The typical pattern is red to dark red falls and yellow to orange standards and style arms. In some hybrids, this combination shows up on all flower parts. 

PCI  'Wildest Imagining'

Start with a dark yellow to orange base color with darker veins, in PCI 'Wildest Imagining', then add more color to the petals, on the edges:

PCI 'Eye Catching'

Then darken the falls, and standards and style arms with intensely colored flowers including:

PCI 'Rancho Coralitos'

PCI 'San Justo'

Then intensify the colors:

PCI 'Wino' has particularly intense yellows

End with a hybrid that is particularly attractive, with red petals and golden veining on the falls. Not shown in this photo is the attractive velvety surface of 

'Sunburn', which makes it glow in sunlight. 

PCI 'Sunburn'

Winter in the Garden: To trim leaves on PCIs or not?

Kathleen Sayce

A couple of years ago, I posted a comment about having used a dry sunny break in the weather to clip back iris leaves and clean up the garden. Several people reprimanded me for doing so, saying I was taking away these plants' capacity to photosynthesize in coming weeks until the new shoots came into full growth. With PCIs, sometimes that is true, and sometimes it is not. 

PCI "Clarice Richards' stays green all winter; brown leaves are tugged/clipped off in late winter or early spring. 

A storm called an Atmospheric River blew through this week; regionally these are called Pineapple Express storms, which bring warm air, high winds and heavy rain. About 11 inches fell in 3 days, ending with more than 5 inches of rain yesterday, a day so wet that salmon could just about swim in the air instead of the streams. Today the sun came out for the first time in nearly a week.

I took photos in the garden of the "photosynthesis-deprived plants" that I trimmed back that fall. My focus in past years for clipping was plants that had brown leaves. Many PCIs have mixed genetic heritages from most of the species in this group, and the degree of browning, if any, varies with those genes.  

Iris innominata has almost completely browned off by mid January. With snow, it will go completely dormant.  

A typical PCI clump in the winter garden, PCI 'Finger Pointing', has a few green shoots and weeds, and a lot of brown. 

Which groups stay the greenest, and can be left alone throughout the winter?  Iris douglasiana-derived hybrids.

Iris douglasiana selections and hybrids with considerable "Doug-blood" stay green all winter long. A few brown leaves are tugged off in late winter or early spring. 

Which groups go the brownest, so that by early winter, the only green leaves are the new shoots?  Joe Ghio's hybrids, and others from his mixed species pool of gene stock. Also, Iris innominata/I. thompsonii plants go brown by midwinter.  

Ghio hybrids typically brown off by early winter. The only green to be seen is weeds, and a few tiny new shoots.

Which groups go completely dormant and lose leaves?  Iris tenax and I. hartwegii. These species' leaves vanish by midwinter. 

Iris tenax vanishes underground by midwinter. Old leaves and winter cress plants will come out when I clean up the oak leaves and spruce cones in a few weeks. 

Spring is coming! Among all the brown leaves and debris, I saw several new shoots on most of my plants. A few have died; one that I though died last fall came back with several new shoots, and the rest have those small green fans we love to see in early spring. 

Now, if the weather stays dry for a few days, I can take my annual soil sample, and start pruning and tidying the garden beds. 

Going Pink––Getting Brighter PCI Flowers

Kathleen Sayce

PCI 'Broadleigh Rose', R. 2006, Broadleigh Gardens

Rose to pink PCI flowers appear in nature from time to time. Debby Cole urged me to collect seeds from a wild I. tenax population along the Columbia River a decade ago; this population is notable for its cool pink flowers. 

'Broadleigh Rose' is a typical wild-type selection with rose pink flowers, a yellow signal, narrow petals and veining in darker pigments. 

But pinks have gotten bold in the garden, moving into modern forms with wider, ruffled petals and more intense colors. The following is a small selection of the variety of modern pinks. As with other reddish-hued flowers, the pink coloration is a balance between cool blues/lavenders/purples in the intracellular fluid and warm tones (yellows/oranges) inside plastids in each cell. 

PCI 'Altar Boy' R. 1998, Joe Ghio

'Altar Boy' is a light pink, near flesh-toned flower with a dark signal and some veining. Petals are broad, and the two-toned color of the falls is very pleasing. 

PCI 'Erika Denise' R.2005 by Vernon Wood 

PCI 'Erika Denise' has intense veining on a light pink background. The darker signal band sets off the pink background, and the contrasting style arms and standards add to a nice complexity. 

PCI 'Marriage Proposal'R. 2006 , Joe Ghio

With more intensely pink petals, 'Marriage Proposal', another Ghio hybrid, has with even wider falls and standards, and intensely dark signals on falls. Ruffling pale edges and lighter center streak add complexity to this flower. 

PCI 'English Rose' R. 2002, Joe Ghio 

Hybrids that move towards solid colors include this one, with petals almost all the same color, and yet, being PCI, there are veins and central petal color variations leaning towards pale blues that lift this flower right out of the ordinary and into a lovely ethereal pink. Wide ruffled petals don't hold up well in wet spring areas, but this one is worth contriving a cover for during flowering. 

PCI 'Fallen Plums', R. 1990, John Marchant 

PCI 'Fallen Plums' edges towards purple, and displays a lovely intensity of color on the falls between the base color, darker veins, light signal and lighter rims. Moderate ruffling means this flower holds up well in wetter spring climates. 



And then we move off into dramatic contrasts between pink and yellow, pinker and orange  . . .

PCI 'Blazing Speed' R. 2008, Duane Meek

Initially the contrast seems almost innocuous, some dark rose veins on a lighter fall, a nicely yellow signal, a small yellow slash. 

PCI 'Rainbow Connection' R. 1994, Joe Ghio 

But these are PCIs, and so the contrast continues:  more veins, lighter background on falls, darker halo on signal, more intensity of color on standards. 

PCI 'On the Bubble' R. 2005, Joe Ghio

And more:  wider, darker, more ruffles, more veining. More contrast. 




And  . . . 

PCI 'Star of Wonder', R. 2002, Joe Gio

Over-the-top gaudy, with PCI 'On the Bubble', raspberry red edges and veins, darker halo on signal, and yellow gleaming through on the falls. 

And yet the effect is still pink, albeit a hot luscious pink with neon-bright color contrasts, like a brilliantly-colored shaved ice confection on a hot summer day.