Irises: The Best and the Bluest, Part One

By Renee Fraser

Blue flowers are rare.  Roses don't come in blue, nor do daylilies, despite sporting names such as 'Wild Blue Yonder' or 'Blue Desire'.


Fortunately, there is no shortage of the color blue in irises: they come in a variety of hues that quench the gardener's thirst. But this poses a dilemma: which blue irises do I want? There are so many!


I asked my gardening friends to show me their best blue irises. Some shared photos of their truest blue iris, some their prettiest blue, and some their best blue performer. I got such a fantastic response that they had to be split into three posts.  So we will start with the tall bearded (TB) irises and then share the beardless, and finally the median flowers. So here for your viewing pleasure are some spectacular blue tall bearded irises.

The traditional favorite is probably 'Babbling Brook'.  It is still in widespread distribution.  So is the reblooming iris 'Victoria Falls'. These are both tried and true garden choices, although 'Victoria Falls' must often be staked.

'Babbling Brook' Photo credit: His Iris Garden

'Victoria Falls' with 'Persian Berry'

Blue irises can be very blue, or more of a lavendar-blue.  NOID means 'no identification' and is used for flowers that have lost their identities.   Dynee Lawler, a photographer who gardens in Southern California, has this beautiful true-blue NOID in her garden.

NOID Photo credit: Dynee Lawler

And Rodney Deal, who is building an historic iris collection based on the varieties his grandmother grew and sold in Oklahoma, shared this NOID, which is at the lavendar end of the rainbow of blues.

NOID Photo credit: Rodney Deal

Blue irises also come in various depths of color and distributions of blue across the flower.  Examples of this are amoenas, irises that have white standards and colored falls. The favorite blue iris of David Stacey is the amoena 'Cascadian Rhythm', which he photographed on a trip to South Jersey Iris last year.  Talk about garden impact.

'Cascadian Rhythm'  Photo credit:  David Stacey

David gardens in Delaware, where he just purchased a large lot with plenty of room for irises.  The Delaware Valley Iris Society (DVIS) which serves parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, maintains a website that will keep you up into the wee hours of the morning with hundreds of photos of irises divided into color categories, where you can search for more blues. 

Susanne Spicker, whose blog Sowing the Seeds features many inspired photographs of irises, also chose an amoena as her favorite blue iris; a romantic flower with ruffles galore and flowing falls.

'Ruffled Ballet' Photo credit: Susanne Spicker

El Hutchison chose a perennial favorite, the rebloomer 'Clarence'.  Here it is in her Canadian Iris Display Garden in Manitoba.  I have seen it variously described as an amoena and as a luminata.  It certainly glows!  Some day I will tell you the story of how this iris got its name.  I promise.

'Clarence' Photo credit: El Hutchison

As for dark- to medium-blue TB irises, 'Sea Power' defines the word "ruffled".  It won the Dykes Medal in 2006, the Wister Medal in 2005, an AM in 2003 and an HM in 2001. It's no wonder!  Marte Hult, who gardens in Minnesota, claims this iris as her favorite blue.  She was joined by a number of other gardeners in this choice, although some report fewer blooms than they would like.

'Sea Power' Photo credit:  Marte Hult

Another ruffled mid-blue beauty was chosen by Tim Metler of Beaumont Ridge Iris Gardens.  This is 'Baltic Sea'.

'Baltic Sea' Photo credit: Tim Metler

Some of these blues tend toward purple, a dominant color in irises, and others are blue-blue.  My favorite blue for the garden is 'City Lights', a reblooming iris which starts out a strong medium blue and fades toward a purply-blue.  It's quite showy and the white areas light it up.

'City Lights' 

Blue irises that have dark falls and lighter standards are called 'neglectas'.  Here is a favorite of a number of gardeners, 'World Premier'.  It's an eye-catcher for sure: look how a single stalk shows up in the garden.

'World Premier' Photo credit: Susanne Spicker

'World Premier'

Loretta Headrick of His Iris Garden in central California went back and forth, and finally settled on rebloomer 'Deep Pacific'.  She says her eye is involuntarily drawn toward it in the garden. As far as medium-dark blues, this is among the bluest.

'Deep Pacific' Photo credit Loretta Headrick

Light blues are probably the bluest blue irises.  An iris that attracts much attention in the garden is 'Queen's Circle'.  It was the favorite light blue of a number of gardeners.  Here it is in my Southern California garden.

'Queen's Circle'

There were votes right and left for irises with clouds in their names.
Bob Sussman of Matilija Nursery and Bonnie's Irises chose 'Cloud Ballet' as his favorite light blue.

'Cloud Ballet' Photo credit: Bob Sussman

Kent Pfeiffer in Nebraska likes the silvery 'Through the Clouds'.

'Through the Clouds' Photo credit: Kent Pfeiffer

And Naomi DiVincenzo in Colorado chose 'Above the Clouds'.

'Above the Clouds' Photo credit: Jan Lauritzen

Marilyn Campbell, an accomplished photographer and gardener, picked 'Color Me Blue' from her zone 4b garden. For those of you seeking true blues, it's hard to beat this light blue.

'Color Me Blue' Photo credit: Marilyn Campbell

Marilyn could not choose just one, and her second choice turned out to be the single most popular true blue iris among all of my gardening friends across the whole internet.  Here is 'Absolute Treasure', the winner of this informal poll of favorite blue irises.

'Absolute Treasure' Photo credit: Marilyn Campbell

We'll take a look at beardless blues soon.  Are you a lover of blue irises?  What's your favorite blue tall bearded iris?

Every Tom, Dick and Harry of Louisiana Irises

By Ron Kiingsworth

When I first became active in Society for Louisiana Irises (SLI), I became friends with three long-time members: Harry Wolford, Tom Dillard, and Dick Sloan.  I decided I would hybridize three LA irises and name them for Tom, Dick, and Harry.

Hybridizing irises is a time-consuming process, and it helps to set out with a specific goal in mind. In 2007 I decided to cross two dark Louisiana (LA) irises with the goal of putting a larger signal on the pod parent.  (The signal is the flash of gold you see below.)  I chose the Mary Swords DeBaillon winning LA iris 'Night Thunder' (Morgan, R 2000) as the "pollen parent" and 'Jeri' (Bertinot, N 1984) as the "pod parent."  In other words, I took the pollen from 'Night Thunder' and put the pollen on 'Jeri.'  I made several crosses on different days to insure that some of the crosses would set seed.

'Night Thunder' - the "daddy"

'Jeri' - the pod parent or "mom"

'Jeri' has only a tiny gold line signal while 'Night Thunder' has a large "steeple" gold signal.  I was really hoping to get a 'Jeri' with 'Night Thunder's' signal.  (Let me point out that both of these irises are darker than these pictures reflect.  I have trouble with digital pictures of really dark irises, they always seem to shift in color to appear lighter than they are in reality.) 

These crosses produced several nice seed pods and from the pods I harvested about 80 seeds.  I planted the seeds from each pod in separate large plastic pots and marked them as "Jeri X Night Thunder."  I was successful in germinating about 30 seeds and wound up with over 25 seedlings.  I planted these seedlings out in rows in one of my flower beds and the seedlings grew through the fall of 2007, the whole year of 2008, and finally in the spring of 2009 my seedlings bloomed! 

What do you get when you cross a dark, almost black, iris with another dark iris?  Well, when my seedlings finally bloomed I was truly amazed.  I did in fact have quite a few dark irises.  Some looked just like 'Jeri' while others looked more like 'Night Thunder.'  Quite a few looked like 'Jeri' with 'Night Thunder's' signal.  But what amazed me was the other colors this cross produced.  Oh, those sneaky genes!

'Our Friend Harry' (Killingsworth, R 2011)

 One of the seedlings was almost red.  It has the nice large signals from 'Night Thunder'.  I moved this seedling to another bed and used every method I knew to increase the number of plants.  It bloomed again in 2010 and was still red!  It was red again in 2011 and the bloom count and positions were sufficient so I registered it as 'Our Friend Harry.'

Another seedling from the 'Jeri' X 'Night Thunder' cross turned out to be a lighter red and it too proved to be a good garden iris with lots of blooms and bud positions.  I registered it in 2011 as 'Our Friend Tom.'

'Our Friend Tom' (Killingsworth, R 2011)

I continue to grow many of the other seedlings from this cross and will eventually chose a few to register.  One of them is very dark with a velvety look and with 'Night Thunder's' signals, which I set out to create.

Seedling S-07-09-920

I really like this seedling because the stands "stand up" and the falls stay straight out.  Another seedling from this cross has stands that stand up and falls that droop down.

So, that takes care of Tom and Harry, but what about Dick?  Earlier, in 2009, I registered an iris as 'Our Friend Dick' (Killingsworth, R 2009).  It was a cross between 'Dural Bluebird' (Taylor, JC 1993) and 'Hush Money' (Dunn, M 1998).  'Dural Bluebird' is, as its name suggests, a nice blue, while 'Hush Money' is a creamy colored iris with a blue cast.  This cross also produced irises of many colors and I chose a seedling from this 2004 cross to name 'Our Friend Dick.'

'Dural Bluebird' - the daddy

'Hush Money' - the mom

'Our Friend Dick' - the child

So, there you have it -- every Tom, Dick and Harry of LA irises!

Those Puzzling Iris Names

By Griff Crump

Some time ago  --  a few years, actually  --  the question arose on iris@hort.net as to why the various species of iris are named as they are. A whole list of puzzlers had been submitted. 

I. tectorum

While most irisarians have heard that I.tectorum means “iris of roofs” or “roof iris”, stemming from the Japanese practice of growing them on their roofs (although I have seen that explanation disputed), the meanings of other names remained obscure. Being the compulsively helpful person that I am, I offered the following explanations for some of them, which I repeat here for those who are not iris@hort.net veterans:

attica -- similar to tectorum, but grows beneath the roof

subbiflora -- same as attica, but two floors down

mandschurica -- a variety, candidans mandschurica, will sit quietly in your

garden for years, then suddenly burst into bloom

acutiloba -- smelling this one can give you a very bad case of iloba

barnumae -- a real circus of color

bismarkiana  --  though plantings may be dispersed, this one will

consolidate and take over your garden

gatesii --  to be planted at the entrance to your garden, of course

hookeriana  --  (ahem, well . . .)

wattii -- in sufficient quantity, this becomes known as voltii

minutoaurea  -- a little bull goes a long way

odaesanensis -- comes from Odessa, but ran into a spelling problem

bulleyana -- crowds out other flowers

innominata -- Linnaeus lost the tag; very common; most of us have some

nelsonii  -- British; has only one branch

crocea -- Kasparek reject, who, looking at it, said "That's a croc."

ludwigii -- first cousin to hartwegii

foetidissima -- a real stinker

bungei -- you can't get rid of this one; it just keeps coming back

farreri -- Italian, misspelled

lazica  --  has to be staked

aitchisonii -- named after the well-known railroad town  (Aitchison, Topeka

and the Sa-anta Fe)

hartwegii -- first cousin to ludwigii

galactica -- honoring the Battlestar of the same name

stenophylla -- a nice present for your secretary

stocksii -- you buy this one when bondsii is too pricey

zaprjagajewii -- named for its discoverer, a Cossack who fell into a clump

of it when his horse missed a steppe

No doubt others among us have explanations for some of the rest.  


You can see the names of all the species irises and many beautiful photos of them at the Species Iris Group of North America (SIGNA) website.


Editor's Note:  Griff invites you to add your own "definitions" for iris species names in the comments section.  Be sure to keep it clean and, above all, funny!

New Zealand Dykes Medal Winner 2012

By Piki Carroll

New Zealand Iris Society President

Hybridizer Ron Busch receives the New Zealand Iris Society’s Dykes Medal for TB ‘Norma of Irwell’

Ron Busch was born in Tower Street in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1934 and has been the Society’s most prolific iris breeder. Ron has been breeding irises for many years and his first registration was a tall bearded called ‘Open Country’ registered in 1969. It had lemon standards with light blue falls and a yellow beard.

'Norma of Irwell'

In 1976 he registered 8 Tall Bearded irises: ‘Allusion,’ ‘Blue Guilt,’ ‘Mountain,’ ‘Painted Witch,’ ‘Rich Melody,’ ‘Sand Boy,’ ‘Snow Song,’ and ‘And Southern Queen.’

Ron has consistently registered irises over the years: 3 Tall Bearded in 1981; 3 Tall Bearded in 1985; 4 Tall Bearded in 1991; and 2 Tall Bearded in 1997.

In 1999 we saw a change with 5 standard dwarf bearded registered. In 2006 saw another change and Ron registered 6 tall bearded and 2 Sibericas. In 2007, 1 tall bearded and 4 standard dwarf beardeds. 2008 saw 11 Spec-x (cal sibs) and 3 tall beardeds which included ‘Norma of Irwell,’ named after Ron’s wife.

In 2009 health issues began to plague Ron and a move to town and a smaller property were on the cards, nevertheless, Ron registered his biggest number yet: 113 tall beardeds.

The British Iris Society has approved the giving of the Dykes Medal for ‘Norma of Irwell,’ and due to Ron’s deteriorating health we are making the announcement prior to receiving the medal which is cast and inscribed in England and will take some time to arrive.

Well done Ron. A just reward for your perseverance over many years.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ^ - - - - - - - -^ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Editor’s Note:

For this week’s Guest Bloggers Series, the President of the New Zealand Iris Society shared with me via Maggie Asplet (web-mistress for the NZ Iris Society) the following information for their American friends and iris lovers worldwide -- the New Zealand Dykes Medal Winner for 2012, a nice tribute to one of their successful and most productive hybridizers. 

I hope you also enjoy the following historic report on how the system for awarding the Dykes medal got started in New Zealand.  For additional information please visit the New Zealand Iris Society.

History of The New Zealand Dykes Memorial Medal

“The Dykes Memorial Medal was instituted by the British Iris Society in 1926 to honour William Rickatson Dykes (1877-1925), a founder of that society and a noted English researcher, hybridiser and gardener as well as the writer of the authoritative monograph, The Genus Iris. The Dykes Medal is the highest award an iris can receive. The New Zealand Dykes Medal can be awarded every second year by the British Iris Society on the recommendation of the New Zealand Iris Society. Frances Love won the first New Zealand Dykes Medal in 1995 for the Siberian iris 'Emma Ripeka'. This medal is awarded also in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia. The Australasian Dykes Medal was first instituted in 1985 and allowed a medal to be awarded to New Zealand and Australian irises in successive years. However the process of sending irises out of the country to be tested in Australia proved unworkable and as a result in 1992 the New Zealand Dykes Trial Garden system was set up for this purpose.”

Andi Rivarola

Editor: World of Irises - the Blog of The American Iris Society 

AIS Social Media Manager

Siberians that the World Overlooked

By Bob Hollingworth

'White Amber'

For any iris, winning awards is a matter of both worthiness and luck. Luck is always an element in the recognition equation:  an iris might put on a particularly impressive display at an iris convention where many judges see it. Or it may put on a great show of bloom, but a week before the convention visit. It may have been planted on a rock, or at the corner of a sunless bed that missed water and fertilizer. In other cases, a worthy iris may never get to the convention for various reasons, perhaps there is not enough stock, for instance. Over the many years that we have sent Siberians to conventions we have seen all these things happen. We have also been lucky when an eye-catching plant showed itself off like a fashion model just as the visitors came. So here I would like to start a series that recognizes fine Siberians, that for one reason or another, never seem to have received the recognition they (to me at least) deserve.  

'White Amber' (Photo by Brock Heilman)

I don’t understand why Marty Schafer and Jan Sack’s 'White Amber', introduced in 2001, has never received any AIS award; not even an Honorable Mention. Maybe they have so many good introductions that some just get overlooked in the crowd, but 'White Amber' for me is one of their finest.  It grows very well for us, blooms early and reliably produces masses of bloom held so that the clump effect is near-perfect. The colors of the flower are novel and satisfying.

It comes from a complex background involving 'Reprise', 'Mad Magenta, 'Isabelle', 'Silver Illusion' and 'Snow Prince'. Surely 'Snow Prince' must have had a significant role because the flowers are relatively small, though compact and nicely ruffled, and the plant generally has a “sibirica” appearance.  Maybe Isabelle helps with the yellow base. The color is perfectly captured by the name – a smooth, warm, milky amber color on the falls that comes from combining yellow and light lavender–pink and which intensifies towards the hafts. The standards are near white and the style arms are mainly yellow. It is certainly in the top dozen Siberians I would take if banished to that proverbial desert island.

Another in the characteristic of a great iris is that it is a fine parent. Again it seems 'White Amber' has been overlooked. The AIS Iris Register lists no named progeny. That is until this year when we introduced an iris called 'Lemon Mousse' which is from 'White Amber' x 'See Ya Later' (Hollingworth, 2006). That cross gave irises in a variety of colors and patterns with several being good enough to take to the next stage for consideration.
I used 'White Amber' because it had such pleasing growth and flowering habits and because I was interested in the combination of yellow and lavender or red shades in Siberians. 'See Ya Later' comes from that kind of background too. So it’s rather ironic that 'Lemon Mousse' has no trace of red. It opens light yellow and fades to pure white with a yellow heart. The flowers are larger than 'White Amber', but produced in the same profusion. Another iris in this cross (05R1B15) did show the lavender and yellow combination along with striking yellow style arms. This too would have been introduced if not for a bunch of white grubs that ate the roots off in a dry summer several years ago. That’s when we discovered that European Chafer grub populations were rapidly on the rise here in Michigan.

10J13B3  (No. 1)

10J13B7  (No. 2)

The results of this cross were so pleasing that I decided to do another similar one using 'White Amber' and our 'Gem Quality' (2008), a seedling from 'See Ya Later' x the yellow 'Smiley Face'. And again the results have been fascinating – tremendously varied and some quite surprising, with all flowering vigorously. Here are three of them  The first, 10J13B3, in which red-violet is combined with yellow to give orangey shades (the photo is less than ideal I’m sorry to say), and the second one (10J13B7) combining blue-purple and yellow to give some brown tones on the style arms and falls, may not be so unexpected, but where did the third (and most interesting) one come from? 

10J13A1 (No. 3)

Reddish on top and blue below, 10J13A1  probably gets its bright gold signal from 'Gem Quality'. I expect that one or two of these may eventually be introduced if they continue to grow well and our control measures keep the grubs at bay.

So to me 'White Amber' is an under-appreciated gem. I still vote it for an HM every year though I suppose its time is now past. Irises are never technically out of the running for an HM, but not being listed on the ballot now is a killer. It seems that some irises just can’t get lucky, but if you want to add a fine Siberian to your collection, do keep it in mind.

This, That, and a Few Other Things

By Brad Kasperek

Greetings from the top of Utah - I'm b-a-a-a-a-ack!  I've heard lots of interesting rumors about what happened to Kathie and I, but reality wasn't quite as interesting. Neither of us died, were in a serious accident or were at death's door, but we both had health issues that brought abrupt changes to our quality of life. Physical recoveries and mental adjustments to the realities of our aging took time. Anyway, we plan on re-opening Zebra Gardens this year and even introducing our first two spurias.  Nothing too exciting, but I believe one of them will offer something new in color combinations. I've had to reevaluate and reduce my previous iris hybridizing goals to decide where my major interests now lie.  The result was a decision to make spurias my primary focus for the future.  Don't everyone groan at once!

Spuria Iris 'Ode to a Toad'

In the Winter 2011 issue Jim Hedgecock wisely encouraged spuria hybridizers to acquire a selection of spuria species irises and to incorporate them into their hybridizing programs. The hope for outcome would be an increase in colors and patterns within the hybridized spuria genotype. This is great advice and new hybridizers should make it one of their goals to do some of this hybridizing. However, it appears to me that the pattern diversity within the I. Spuria species is much more limited than in bearded irises. Thus we should also continue working to fully identify the recessive characteristics of the existing genotype (color, pattern, size, ruffles, frills, etc.). This is what happened and continues to happen in the hybridizing of bearded iris. Look at the variety there!

Spuria Iris 'Ibex Ibis'

Once again for at least the 1000th time I relearned the hard way that if I think I know what I'm doing - I probably don't. These delusions exist only because I wasn't smart enough to ask the right questions when I should have.  After my experience with hybridizing bearded irises I assumed hybridizing spurias would be similar -wrong!  It seems that every technique or process I used with bearded irises was just far enough off the mark to impede my success with spurias in both producing seed and getting it to germinate. Seed germination has been the bane of my spuria hybridizing and I've tried everything I could think of to improve my results, but I always planted the seeds in POTS. Last year, Iris, the goddess of the rainbow must have smiled on my hybridizing efforts because we harvested almost 21,000 spuria seeds which was a huge increase over all other years. So I quickly created a convoluted plan to test several new methods of improving germination and producing seedlings large enough to transplant by mid-May. The crosses with the highest number of seeds were split into three groups: green seed to freeze, green seed to chill and dried seed to soak at the end of December. On the 2nd and 3rd of this January we potted these seeds up in 77 - 2 gal pots and stored them in my bedroom to await their later transfer to the greenhouse. I'll let you know the results in my next column. They should be good for a laugh at least.


So with this work out of the way I finally decided it might be a good idea to check with Dave Niswonger to see if he could provide any help with my germination problems. Dave told me that the most important factor affecting spuria seed germination was how many soil particles were in direct contact with the seed. Thus he plants his in a seed bed made of loamy soil without any added peat moss or other organic material and gets around 75% germination. Incorporating organic material would reduce germination by reducing the seed to soil contact.  Additionally, he said to NEVER POT the seeds up because potting mixes have very poor soil to seed contact!  Now why didn't I ask him for this advice six years ago!!!  Or even six months ago!  As "they" say - the only stupid question is one not asked.

Spuria Iris Seedling 5SP-11A

My early years of hybridizing tales of woe will become an article at a later date after I have some confidence that I finally know how to hybridize spurias in northern Utah. One thing that I'm certain of is that geographical location, temperature zone, length of growing season and the amount, form and timing of precipitation makes an enormous difference in the culture of spurias whether gardening or hybridizing.  It's my impression that this sort of information isn't adequately documented or mentioned in articles or on our website.  Do you believe this information would be valuable if someone (ah! that elusive someone) would try to compile it?  Please contact me at zebrairis@gmail.com if you think this is a worthwhile project.

Have a wonderful bloom season!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - ^ - - - - - - - - - - ^ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Brad Kasperek at the 2006 AIS National Convention

Editor's Note: It is with great honor and pleasure that with this article we bring you a new area of exploration to World of Irises - the Blog of The American Iris Society -- Guest Bloggers. Brad Kasperek is the first, and there's a reason for it. He is a hero of mine, for having had the courage to "boldly go" in pursuit of his fascination with Broken Color irises. I mean, the name of his business says it all, "Zebra Gardens - Irises of a Different Stripe."

I can never forget how surprised I was to hear Jim Hedgecock say at one of his presentations that with only about 800-Spuria iris varieties registered, the field of spuria iris hybridizing is quite open, and the opportunities endless. So, I feel that Brad's work will bring new life to the world of Spurias.

I'm very glad Brad explains about his and Kathie's health issues at the beginning of this article because as someone who followed their work closely, I was worried. So, Brad and Kathie, glad you're back on your feet and in the garden because the result will be, as we all know, beautiful irises. Welcome back!

I hope we can get to hear more from Brad in the future. I will follow his steps into spuria iris hybridizing adventures with great interest.

A similar version of this article first appeared in the Winter 2012 Edition of Spuria Iris News, the newsletter of the Spuria Iris Society.

Brad was kind enough to provide me the descriptions of the two newly introduced spurias:

'Ibex Ibis' (Kasperek 2012), SPU, 45", M. Light medium lavender standards, stylearms and rim around fall with a bright yellow fall center darkening to gold at the arm crest, 5 to 6 buds.

'Ode to a Toad' (Kasperek 2012), SPU, 38", M. Rich, red-brown maroon standards and mottled purple & brown style arms. Rich, orange-gold falls rimmed and modestly veined in smoky maroon, 4 to 5 buds.

Andi Rivarola
Word of Irises - the Blog of The American Iris Society, Editor
AIS Social Media Manager