Tall Bearded Iris Color Terms

By Renee Fraser

For those of us still new to the world of irises, there is much vocabulary to master. The parts of the iris flower, the different species of irises, the parts of the plant itself, and of course, the specialized terms categorizing irises into color types. Here is a quick reference, with photographic examples, of some of the major color terms you will encounter while reading about your favorite flower.

SELF

The falls and the standards of a self are the same color. These irises really stand out in a garden setting and are wonderful companions to other plants.

'Adriatic Waves' with Allium.  Photo c. Brad Collins

'Beverly Sills' with Paludosum Daisies

'Fine Wine'

PLICATA

Plicatas have stippled, dotted or stitched edges on a white or yellow ground.  I love the white ones with the pretty picotee edging the best.  

The Plicataman himself, hybridizer Keith Keppel, contacted us to remind us that the definition of a plicata as having a white or yellow ground needs to amended, "as hybridizers have worked hard and we now have lots of plicatas with pink or apricot ground, and we're working to intensify the depth of color so you can really say 'orange, and mean it!"

For more on plicatas, click here.

'Paprika Fonos' 

'Rare Treat'

'Spice Lord' Photo c. Margie Valenzuela

AMOENA

Amoenas have colored falls and white standards.  The most famous is probably, and justifiably, 'Wabash', pictured below.  To see another post on amoenas, click here.

'Wabash' Photo c. Mike Unser

'Venetian Queen'

'Dreaming of Rio' Photo c. Betty Jacobs

VARIEGATA

An iris with red falls and yellow standards.  My very favorite photo of this color, below, shows the cultivar 'Supreme Sultan' with its earliest progenitor, the original iris variegata. Can you believe what modern hybridizing has accomplished?

'Supreme Sultan' compared to the original species variegata!  Photo c. Chuck Chapman

'Decadence' at Schreiner's Iris Gardens. Photo c. Betty Jacobs

'Rogue Trader' Photo c. Betty Jacobs

NEGLECTA

A blue or purple-blue bitone iris with lighter standards.  Click here for more photos of neglectas.

'World Premier' Photo c.TBGDN @All Things Plants

'Northwest Progress' with Julia Child rose

GLACIATA

An iris with no purple anthocyanin pigment.  These irises often seem to glow.  The colors remind me of that wonderful "polychrome" daylily color.

'Glacier Blush' Photo c. Blue J Iris

'Snow Lion' Photo c. Jan Lauritzen

'If Not For You' Photo c. Stout Gardens at Dancingtree

LUMINATA

Another glowing iris type, the luminata, is an iris with a white or yellow base washed over with color so that it appears to glow from within.  More luminatas can be found here.

'Pretty Pansy'

'Wise Woman' Photo c. Brad Collins

BITONE...

This is an iris which has standards and falls of the same color,  but the standards are a lighter shade than the falls.

'Bayberry Candle' 

'Smoky Shadows' Photo c. Rick Tasco

AND 

REVERSE BITONE

A bitone, REVERSED!

'Missouri Mist'

BICOLOR

An iris of two colors.

'Adoree' Photo c. Betty Jacobs

'Smoke and Thunder' Photo c. Brad Collins

'Sweet Musette'

BROKEN COLOR

These flowers have splotches, blotches, and streaks in random patterns.  For more broken color irises, click here.

'Maria Tormena'

'Batik' Photo c. Andi Rivarola

EMMA COOK PATTERN

A darker ring of color around the falls of the flower is referred to as the Emma Cook Pattern, which is named after this famous ground-breaking cultivar.

'Conjuration' Photo c. Dan Holt

'Alsea' Photo c. Brad Collins

'Rare Coin' Photo c. Brad Collins

Many new and exciting color combinations and patterns are emerging in the world of iris hybridizing, so many that it's hard to figure out if they fit into an existing category or if new ones should be created.  I am partial to amoenas. Which is your favorite?

"Talking Irises" TALL BEARDED IRISES -- Revamping An Existing Bed For Maximum Impact

By Susanne Holland Spicker

Are you thinking of revamping an existing flower bed? If you're like me, and want to add some irises from your 'wish list', but don't know quite where to begin, here are a few tips that have helped me that may prove useful to you.

• Determine the square footage of your garden space. This is done by multiplying the garden width by its length. (A 10 X 10 foot area = 100 square feet). This bed is approximately 65 X 8 feet and has about 50 different iris cultivars. 
• I use irises as my dominant feature. I plan on about 2 feet between each cultivar. (This requires more frequent dividing, however).
• Choose a color scheme. Complimentary colors are opposite on the color wheel. This bed focuses on yellows and violets, opposites on the color wheel. 
• I make a collage of the irises I have, and the ones I want to add. I added 5 new ones this year and have them in the collage to see how they coordinate.
• Be aware of bloom times--using irises that bloom very early through very late will give maximum impact. 
• Use a wide variety of companion plants, staggering their bloom time, providing a variety of heights and textures. 
• Take pictures! Keep a garden journal, making changes if necessary.
• And most important, have fun!

Revamping a bed can be a challenge, but hopefully these tips can make it a pleasant and rewarding experience for you.

Do you use irises as the dominant  interest in your flower beds? If so, I would love to hear from you!

A Long, Long Iris Trail a-Winding

By J. Griffin Crump

In my post of this past October 6 ("What Happens If You Cross These Two Irises?"), one of the featured irises was 'Entrancing', which is scheduled to be introduced in 2015.  Of course, its pedigree is much longer than just the parents, which were also shown. I thought that it might be interesting to trace it back as far as the record goes, along with some explanation of why certain things were done.

Like many of my seedlings and several of my introductions, the trail winds back through 'Wabash', the iris which first lit the spark that started my hybridizing.

'Wabash'

This beauty was developed and introduced in 1936 by Mary Williamson, who gardened and hybridized near the storied river of that name in the north central portion of my native state of Indiana.  'Wabash's own parentage was 'Dorothy Dietz' X 'Cantabile' (Latin for "praiseworthy").  In turn, 'Dorothy Dietz'' parentage was 'Wyoming' X 'Lent A. Williamson', and Cantabile resulted from 'Lent A. Williamson' X unknown.  Thus, there were two "doses" of 'Lent A. Williamson' in 'Wabash''s breeding. 'Lent A. Williamson' resulted from a cross of 'Amas' (introduced in 1885) X unknown.  Of all of these ancestors of 'Wabash', the only photographs I have been able to find have been of 'Lent A. Williamson'.  Unfortunately, two of those photographs  --  one in our own Iris Encyclopedia and the other contributed by our late friend Mike Lowe, of the Historical Iris Preservation Society, to another late friend, Clarence Mahan's "Irises and the Men and Women Who Created Them" are differently colored, but clearly are the same flower.  The difference in color of the background, as well, suggests that there was a difference in lighting or in the film, or both.  I include both of them here.  (Note the nick in the fall on the lower right in the second photo.)

Lent A. Williamson (Iris Encyclopedia)

Lent A. Williamson (Mike Lowe)

There are nine other photos of 'Lent A. Williamson' in the Iris Encyclopedia, all of which show the flower as blue-violet.

In 1992,  hoping to bring 'Wabash''s velvet falls into (then) more modern form, I crossed it, as pod parent, with a yellow bi-tone seedling of unknown heritage (though it may have been from the lines of Jean Stevens of New Zealand, some of which I had) which had broader falls.

Yellow bi-tone seedling

The cross produced Seedling 93L6, which reversed the color pattern of both parents, giving basically white falls and solid yellow standards, with a yellow ring on the broad, ruffled falls.  At this point, I felt I was making progress.

Seedling 93L6

I crossed 93L6, as the pod parent, with Barry Blyth's 'Chinese Treasure', hoping that it would interact with the 'Wabash' genes to restore the amoena (pure white standards) factor and velvet texture of the falls.  

Chinese Treasure

I was quite surprised by the resulting Seedling 952G8.  It was smallish, but the colors are rich.

Seedling 952G8

Meantime, still working with amoenas and dark velvet falls,  I had crossed the amoena 'Margarita' by the exotic bi-tone 'Momauguin' (which I had never been able to photograph well and no longer have).

'Margarita'

'Momauguin'

'Momauguin' certainly wasn't going to win any beauty contests, but I was intrigued by the crushed velvet texture of its falls.  I saw it growing in Charlie Nearpass's garden one spring, and he ripped it out of the ground and gave it to me.

The cross of 'Margarita' X 'Momauguin' produced six seedlings, of which only three survived, but the graceful form of their stalks added a new focus to my hybridizing efforts.  The best of the three was 93RR6.  In the following photo of a clump of this seedling,  there are three stalks shown.  The stalks on the left and right display the graceful S curve of the entire plant as well as the lower branch, probably indicating aphylla ancestry.  The S curve is present in the center stalk, of course, but is more difficult to trace in the picture.  The plant normally carried 9 buds.

Seedling 93RR6

I treasured 93RR6, but could never get a cross involving it.  Happily, there was its sibling 93RR2, smaller overall, but with the same seductive branching and velvety falls.  I crossed it, as the pod parent, with another smallish iris, 'Fringe of Gold'.

Seedling 93RR2

'Fringe of Gold'

These two produced Seedling 952H1 which, unfortunately, seems to have eluded the camera;  I crossed it, as the pod parent, with 952G8 (shown above), and that resulted in Seedling 20Q5, again somewhat on the small side, but keeping the desired branching.

Seedling 20Q5

I waited for a long time to find a suitable match for 20Q5, as noted in October's post. Eventually, after acquiring Sterling Innerst's 'Lynsy Alexandra', I found it to be so similar in shape and patterning that it invited the cross.

Lynsy Alexandra

 Among the several good seedlings resulting, I found Seedling 07S9  to be entrancing, so it will be introduced under that name in 2015.

'Entrancing'

 And the branching?  

'Entrancing'

So, in the pursuit of initial goals, we may find other avenues also worthy of exploration.  So much the better.

Growing the Guest Irises

By Renee Fraser

In the spring of 2016, the American Iris Society Region 15 Garden Tour will come to my area, and for the first time I volunteered to grow guest irises in hopes that they will survive my gardening skills long enough to put on at least one show of blooms for the attendees. 

In case you are unfamiliar with these tours, each year hybridizers of new irises send dozens of rhizomes of their newest creations out across the country to live in "guest gardens" two to three years before national or regional garden tours.  Volunteers grow the irises and record their performance, and iris lovers sign up, load onto buses or into car caravans, and tour all of the gardens during the treks.  Iris judges take notes about the new plants and evaluate their health, vigor, and blooms. 

My original intent in volunteering to grow these irises was to have an excuse for expanding my garden beds at the expense of my husband's lawn.  Mikey and I are like two feudal lords, jealously guarding the borders of our domains and expanding into neighboring lands when our opponent is occupied on other fronts.  My latest strategy is a row of unmortared bricks lining my beds.  Using a half-moon edger, I can slice out three to four inches of unprotected St. Augustine grass in under an hour, move the bricks out, and pretend like I have just "edged" the lawn for my husband.  The request from the San Fernando Valley Iris Society to grow guest irises was the perfect excuse for demanding a huge island bed in the center of the lawn, where the sun is best, since the big coast redwoods shade the rest of the yard.  My bid was foiled, however, when Mikey offered to fell the ailing and dehydrated coast redwoods, letting sun stream into one of my existing beds instead.  This I allowed, since his other offer was to add an arbor so he could hang himself.

It turned out that the 44 guest irises would not fit into the existing bed, so I claimed imminent domain over about two feet of grass in the borderlands.  A treaty was agreed to, and I began my expansion.  I quickly realized that Mikey had taken me in:  this area of the lawn was infested with Bermuda grass!  This required double-digging, and much screening of dirt.  I wanted the irises to be in raised beds, but to look naturally planted, so I carted in wheelbarrows full of dirt from a neighbor.  Three bags of vermiculite, four bags of soil amendments, and a few wheelbarrows of composted chicken manure from the girls were dug into the soil as well.  (I generally just stick irises straight into the ground and ignore them and they give me a great show, so this preparation is due to unreasonable anxiety, not to any special needs of irises.)

The next challenge to growing irises in my garden is me.  I want lush, green, flower-filled English gardens and I live in a drought-stricken, hot inland Southern California valley.  I know, I know, I should accept the natural order of things and go native, and I have eliminated some of my favorites because they are so thirsty. Even with these changes, weekly irrigation is still a necessity, and that can cause irises to rot, especially when beds are irregularly shaped and lawn sprinkler water reaches them.  I left two patches of Japanese Blood Grass, which appreciates a good swim now and then, at a lower elevation in the bed in the vain hope that water will drain through the raised irises and into the gully of blood grass.  An old plowshare blocks the back spray from the worst offending Rainbird, and in this photo it appears that it will have the added benefit of knee-capping Mikey while he mows.  I shall hand-water the new plants when they get dry, and avoid watering in the heat of summer, which should help prevent rot.

The guest iris bed.  Please ignore the yellowed St. Augustine grass and the crispy Bridal Wreath Spireas and pray for rain in Southern California.  

After growing in pots in the shade through the hottest part of the summer,  I planted the irises in the new bed in September. The plants had healthy looking roots and seem to be adapting well to their new home.  I organized them according to color and height, with the area near my red rose in front of the tuteur for the red irises, the corals, oranges, peaches and pinks next, then warm orchid and red-violets, to purples in the back, over across the blood grass to coppers, tans, yellows and whites, and finally in the far back a few blues.  I stretched plastic bird-netting over the soil and cut holes for the irises to foil the excavations of squirrels, raccoons, oppossoms and Pogo the One-Eyed Cat. There is one Arilbred iris I am obsessing over, and one IB, since I have never grown them successfully in the past, but otherwise I have high hopes for the show in the spring.  I may plant color-coordinated violas between the irises for the trek.  What do you think?  Bare dirt, or a few violas, violets, and gazanias for ground cover? 

I'll be sure to post photos of any surviving plants in bloom this Spring.  And be sure to take a look at the American Iris Society website, join your local society, and plan on going on a Spring Garden Trek!

Why Grow Rebloomers?

by Betty Wilkerson

In the world of irises, there are different guidelines for garden judging and exhibition judging.  What is the difference, you ask? Show bench irises for exhibition only have to look good, and be good, for one day.

'Summer Radiance' (Wilkerson 96)

Garden judging involves how an iris appears in the garden, not for just one day, but for the full iris season. It also assesses plant health, branching, bud count, and sequence of bloom, among other things.  Sequence of bloom not only involves how the blooms open on the stalk, one at a time, two at a time etc., but how the stalks extend from the iris clump.  For instance, an iris I grew years ago had approximately 15 stalks and they all opened the terminal buds on the same day, and then it bloomed all of the first branch primary buds a couple of days later. Yes, it was beautiful, but the clump was finished blooming in just a few days. An iris that puts up one stalk at a time, like 'Summer Radaince,' displays its beauty for a much longer time.

'Vanishing Act' (Wilkerson 2004)

'Echo Location' (Wilkerson 2007)

'Returning Chameleon' (Wilkerson 1995)

When you hear people speak of their remontant irises, they are talking about reblooming irises. Reblooming irises extend the length of bloom per season, per iris. Since there are only two or three fall shows for reblooming irises in the United States of America, most of my focus is on hybridizing good garden qualities.  I'm particularly fond of irises that are dependable for rebloom, as are those shown on this page.

Seedling # 1907-10Re 

My interest in rebloom began over 30 years ago, because I love iris blooms so much that spring bloom was not enough for me.  I'm as thrilled with one bloom as most people are with a whole clump!  When planting a new rebloom bed in my garden, I first research the cultivars that rebloom well in my area, zone 6. Second, I plant them in a good spot.  Third, I make sure I water and fertilize them well.  Nevertheless, there are no guarantees! We are still bargaining with Mother Nature.

As a breeder, I have the added advantage of seeing seedlings, like 1907-10Re, that others may never see. Ask any questions you like.  Enjoy!