"Talking Irises" TALL BEARDED IRISES & COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEMES--Planning your iris bed

by Susanne Holland Spicker

"Gardening is such an incredible joy, and the more successful you are as a gardener, the more enjoyable your gardening becomes" Mike McGroarty

'WINNING EDGE'  Ghio   1997   36"   ML

Planning irises in complementary color schemes has been an enjoyable production in progress in my flower beds. The beds have transitioned from a few irises in the garden in 1995, to presently 15 to 45 favorite varieties in each of the 14 iris beds throughout the yard. I couldn't have imagined how smitten I would become with these tall beauties back then, each year exclaiming I didn't have room for one more. I now have over 300 named cultivars, and I definitely don't have room for more! To keep my beds organized, I make a collage of irises in the bed, with favorites I want to add. This method works best for me, and it may work for you.

The color palette for my pastel bed is one of my favorites:

(From upper, row 1, l-r) 'BUBBLY MOOD' Ghio '84, 'BUBBLING OVER' Ghio '82, 'GOODNIGHT MOON' Schreiner '95, 'RUFFLED BALLET' Roderick '75, 'ROLE REVERSAL' Ghio '10, 'RHINELANDER' Schreiner '06 (row 2) 'PRETTY GENEROUS' Innerst '04, 'WINNING EDGE' Ghio '97, 'SKATING PARTY' Gaulter '83, 'EMBRACE ME' Van Liere '08, 'ASCII ART' Moores '97, 'GLOWING SMILE' Hager '01, (row 3) 'SOCIETY PAGE' Ghio '00, 'BUBBLING WAVES' Ghio '06, 'GOING DUTCH' Van Liere '09, 'QUEEN'S CIRCLE' Kerr '00, 'LACED COTTON' Schreiner '80, 'ELECTRABRITE' Brown '83, (row 4) 'POND LILY' Jones '95, 'COMING UP ROSES' Gatty '92, 'ABOVE THE CLOUDS' Schreiner '01, 'GLOBAL CROSSING' Van Liere '12, 'ELISA RENEE' Gaulter '93, 'MARY FRANCES' Gaulter '73

When planning out an iris bed, these are things that have worked best for me to achieve maximum success:  

• What look do I want to accomplish?
• What color schemes do I want to have?
• What is the bloom time of the iris and companion plants?
• What companion plants will go best with my irises, giving a variety of texture, shape, and size?
• Which plants need to be moved or replaced?
• Mapping out the bed and recording it in a notebook and computer.



'GLOBAL CROSSING'  (Van Liere '12   36"   M)

This long wrap-around porch pastel bed now has 45 different tall bearded irises.

'EVENING TIDINGS', 'GLOBAL CROSSING', 'BUBBLING WAVES', 'LACY DAY', 'INTO THE NIGHT', 'EMBRACE ME'

'DESIGNER LABEL' (Ghio '03  38"  M-L)

'SWEET SERENADE', 'RUFFLED BALLET', 'SOCIETY PAGE', 'CROWNED HEADS', 'HEATHERIDGE', 'ELECTRABRITE'

'BUBBLING OVER' (Ghio   '82   36"  M)

'LACY DAY', 'BUBBLING WAVES', 'GLOBAL CROSSING'

'BUBBLING WAVES' (Ghio 36"  VE-E)

'OVERJOYED' (Gatty by Keppel '94   35"  M)

Irises come in a vast array of colors, multiply annually, and are easy to divide or move; so if the outcome isn't what you had in mind, changes can easily be made. I am always refining my beds. This is where a map of your irises is so beneficial.

Whether you're a beginning iris gardener, or a seasoned iris lover with many years of growing under your belt, seeing success in your garden is always exciting and very rewarding—I eagerly look forward to spring!

What kind of iris gardener are you?  Do you plan your beds out?  I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Beautiful Gardens with Irises in Every Climate

By Renee Fraser

Sometimes I see a photo of an iris online and what catches my eye is not the flower, but the setting. I come back to these photos and study them, trying to figure out how to achieve that look in my own garden. Here today I have posted some garden photos from various iris growers around the Internet, so that you can dream a bit and get some inspiration for your own garden Eden.

Santa Cruz, California is a beautiful part of the state with a world-class university and spectacular views of the Pacific and the mountains. It gets decent rainfall for California. Sherry Austin has created a sprawling garden that features huge clumps of Pacific Coast and Tall Bearded Irises, many of the latter historics.  

In addition to being a talented gardener, Sherry is an accomplished musician who specializes in folk music. You can hear her for yourself by visiting the website of her group, Henhouse.  

In this photo, Sherry mixes New Zealand Flax, sedum, and Pacific Coast Irises in her landscape.

Below is Sherry's "vegetable" garden. Some of you may have "vegetable" gardens that look like this. From left to right: 'Indian Chief,' 'Whispering Falls', and in the back, 'Aureo variegata'. The roses are 'Fred Loads' and 'Sherry', and they are planted with Lavendula stoechys 'Otto Quast', dahlias, nepeta, sedum, and calendula. I love the wooden fence with the big clumps of irises.

And here it is from the other side:

Sherry has big plans for next year, with over a hundred new irises waiting to be planted. I can't wait to see the photos next year!

Joel Schaber is an artist and calligrapher who gardens in Boise, Idaho, and who chooses irises based on plant growth habit and beauty of foliage as well as scent and bloom. His gardens are meticulously planned, planted, and maintained. He has little time for poorly performing plants, as his garden attests. Here is Intermediate Bearded Iris 'Harmonium' with chives, ferns, hostas and the shasta daisy 'Becky' (not yet in bloom).

Here Joel uses 'Edith Wolford' (his favorite) with Asiatic lilies and California poppies.

A spectacular coordinated color display is created with 'Rhinelander', 'Paul Black', Centranthus ruber, and campanula.

In this bed, Joel uses (from left to right)  'Rhinelander', 'Sun Fun', 'World Premier', and 'Cheap Frills' in front, with 'Orinoco Flow' in the background. The companion plants include red Centranthus ruber (aka Jupiter's Beard or Valerian) and shasta daisy 'Becky'.  Can you believe the show put on by 'Orinoco Flow'?

The Centranthus ruber, California poppies, and shasta daisies tie Joel's beds together, and here they are joined by Siberian iris 'Caesar's Brother' and a yellow mini rose.

Pauline Lavigne has extensive cottage-style gardens with spectacular structures, all tied together with wide swaths of lawn and charming paths. Pauline gardens in Canada, where she grows peonies, daylilies, hostas, and irises, as well as countless other flowers and plants. The jaw-dropping photo below is what first brought her garden to my attention.

Here is the standard dwarf bearded iris 'Cherry Garden', which is the second iris to bloom in Pauline's garden, after iris cristata.  

Here's a different view of that first peony/iris combination. You can see the hostas in the background.

And this is another shot of the great garden iris 'Caesar's Brother', an exceptional siberian iris that will even grow in hot inland Southern California. What a color combination!

The last garden I'd like to share is in Minnesota. You may have seen Marte Hult's garden on this blog before. Marte's skill at layering plants en masse is only one of her gardening talents, though. She is also masterful at color coordination and contrast. Here she uses (what else?) 'Caesar's Brother' Siberian iris with masses of yellow historic tall bearded irises. (I really did not plan this PR for Caesar's Brother, I promise.)

This iris is the near-green 'County Cork' looking spectacular with chartreuse sedum.  

A cool pink tall bearded iris with chives for a fairy-tale effect.  

I hope you enjoyed these gardens as much as I did. Do you use irises in your garden, or do you plant them in separate beds? Leave a comment below, and good luck finding spots for all of those rhizomes appearing in the mail this summer and fall!

Aruba's Eye-Popping Clump Shots

'Amber Essence' in Brad's Garden c. Brad Collins

By Renee Fraser

We are a lucky generation of gardeners:  there are quite a number of talented photographers across the internet sharing their shots of our favorite flower.  In the days before internet sites such as Dave's Garden, All Things Plants, Gardenweb, and of course, the American Iris Society's Iris Encyclopedia, we had to anxiously await the year's catalogs from our favorite iris growing companies to drool over lovely images of irises.  So much has changed in the last few years!  So today I would like to share a few of the fine photographs of one of my internet heroes, Brad Collins (Aruba), who has designed and planted an extraordinary iris garden in Iowa and who liberally and generously shares his beautiful photographs of irises with the world on AllThings Plants and the Irises Cubit.  

'Purple Serenade' c. Brad Collins

I really love Brad's pictures because he often photographs the whole plant or a clump of irises, which gives me a better idea of what the variety will look like in the garden.  For instance, 'Petticoat Shuffle' never would have caught my eye (just another purple plicata) but Brad's clump shot sent me straight to the catalog to place the order.

'Petticoat Shuffle' c. Brad Collins

Brad became interested in photography through scuba diving, and when I complimented him on his talent, he dryly noted that taking pictures of irises is easy compared to trying to capture a three-foot-long fish moving like lightning 90 feet below water.  But I don't think it's easy to get a shot like this:

'There's No Place Like Home' c. Brad Collins

Brad comes from a long line of iris lovers.  It has become a cliché' in this blog, but once again, it was grandma who started it all.  Brad's father, Michael, also an iris lover and accomplished gardener, says that when he was a child the whole family would walk over to grandma's iris garden to eat a hearty breakfast cooked by grandpa over an open fire outside.  The scent of the first iris each spring brings those memories flooding back, and Michael is proud and happy that his son Brad caught the iris virus and is continuing the family tradition.  The first iris Brad planted in his garden was 'Stepping Out', a gift from his dad, who was given that very iris by his grandmother in 1975. 

'Drinks at Sunset' c. Brad Collins

Brad has designed several acres of gardens in Iowa.  He was inspired to plant his huge curving beds of irises after a tour of the Pacific northwest iris growers in 2009, including visits to Mid America, where he fell in love with the way the irises were set off by the conifers, roses, and small trees.  With advice and help from Paul Black, he set about creating his own Eden.  Many of his spectacular clump shots are taken in his own back yard.  He grows over 500 varieties of irises, mostly newer introductions from Paul Black, Thomas Johnson, Joe Ghio, Barry Blyth, and Keith Keppel, but many from other hybridizers as well.

Brad's garden featuring rare conifers

Year-round interest

Over 500 varieties of irises

Brad says "one of the things I enjoyed from visiting the commercial gardens on the west coast was the seedling beds, and finding something brand new in those gardens every day that I had never seen before. It was a lot of fun- I think I walked all of Schreiner's 200 acres in those few days and made numerous stops at Mid America and Keppel’s,  and I really enjoyed seeing all the new colors and patterns.  So I decided to try and make some crosses at home just to see if I could get some pods. The result was better than I had hoped and I came up with almost 40 crosses."  Over 800 plants are growing, and this year he planted 3,000 seeds.  Thank goodness his kind neighbors own a commercial garden, and they have given over part of a greenhouse for his use.  He'll need his own greenhouse soon!

Brad's Seedlings lined out

Brad has scheduled a trip to California this spring:  he will be visiting  Napa Country Iris, Joe Ghio's gardens in Monterey, and Superstition Iris Gardens this April.  I look forward to sharing his experience through his generosity with his time and talent and the wonders of the internet.  To hold you over until then, here are a few more of his wonderful clump shots.

'Catwalk Queen' c. Brad Collins

'Sweetly Sung' c. Brad Collins

'Romantic Gentleman' c. Brad Collins

Which photo will send you straight to the order forms?  Let us know below.

Extending the Louisiana Bloom Season with Companions for Louisiana Irises

By Ron Killingsworth

We grow thousands of Louisiana irises here, many spuria hybrids, iris virginica, twenty or so hybrid tall bearded irises, some really old "hand me down" tall bearded irises, some species crosses and lots of Dutch irises.  But we also grow many other beautiful plants.  You can extend your gardening season with judicious choices of spring bulbs, flowering trees, and other perennials that bloom before and after the irises.  Here at our gardens in Louisiana, springtime starts with the blooming of narcissus, snow flakes and grape hyacinths, continues with the daffodils and Dutch irises.  

Narcissus with Snow Flakes (leucojum vernum) in background

Daffodils

Flowering Quince is another early spring bloomer and we have several plants in the front and side yards.

Flowering Quince

One unusual tree that blooms early in this area is the redbud tree, which puts out its blooms before the leaves. Vivian, LA, just north of us, has the "Redbud Festival" each spring as these trees bloom.

Redbuds

Another early bloomer, blooming in NW LA at the end of February, is an old species of tall bearded iris that are handed down through the generations.  Every time I give a talk on growing irises, at least one person will comment "I grow the purple one" and this is the pass-along flower they mean.  

We also grow iris virginica in blue, white, and pink.  

iris.virginica white

iris.virginica "big blue"

iris.virginica pink

Another wonderful little plant that produces massive amounts of bloom each spring is "Johnny Jump Ups".  These little flowers are appropriately named because once you plant some, they "jump up" all over the place!  They are ideal with irises since they cover the ground with color without smothering rhizomes.

 "Johnny Jump Up" Violas

The Spuria irises usually bloom about the same time as the LA irises.  

LA Iris 'Adell Tingle'

Spuria irises 

An unusual iris we grow is 'Aichi-no-kagayaki' (Shinnosuki) a species cross that blooms late in the season, not until June.

'Aichi-no-kagayaki' a species cross

Close up of 'Aichi-no-kagayaki' which has Japanese iris in it.

In June, the Amaryllis bloom.  We grow many different hybrids of Amaryllis.  My sister has been crossing them and producing new varieties.

Amaryllis

My wife Sue loves Angel Trumpets in white and yellow.  These beautiful huge blooms are about the last bloom we see before the first freeze of the year.

Angel Trumpets (brugmansia) 

Angel Trumpets

These are a few of the blooming plants we use to extend our bloom season here in Northwest Louisiana.  What plants do you use along side of your irises to create a long bloom season?