What is in a name? Lophiris - Crested Iris – Part One

By Maggie Asplet

When thinking about what I would write for this blog, it was before our main spring bloom season, just at a time when the sight of things to come was teasing us.  Many of our New Zealand iris lovers have these beautiful irises in their garden.  I am talking about the “butterfly iris” or more correctly Iris japonica and some of the different hybrids.

This iris is a native of China and Japan, a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus of Limniris and in the Lophiris section.  It is a rhizomatous perennial plant, with pale blue, lavender or white flowers with an orange or yellow crest. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions.

Often referred to as either a Crested Iris or an Evansia, and then there is Iris confusa. Confused, I sure am.  I quite like the term “butterfly iris” and look forward to any discussion relating to the correct naming.  This is one section of the iris world that I need to learn more about.

Iris confusa (?) in my garden

Actually, as I started my research on these irises, I was rather surprised to fine how many I have, so more research and understanding is required. 

The next one is a delightful clump of Iris confusa ‘Martyn Rix’, in my garden

Named for a UK plants man Martyn Rix, this iris gets bamboo-like stems to 2'-3' (80 – 95 cm) topped by fans of long green leaves from which the long flower stems emerge bearing a swarm of dark blue-violet flowers which are deeper coloured than typical for the species.

Another similar iris known as ‘Chengdu’, is often confused for the above iris.  Similar in size but slightly different in depth of colour.  Registered by Jean Witt in 1997, this Evansia SPEC grows to around 24” (61 cm).  Standards and style arms are light lavender, the falls slightly darker, signal white with medium lavender halo and a yellow crest.  Originally collected in 1980 by Jeanne Gardiner between Kanding, Tibet and Yaan, Sichuan, China around 3000’ elevation.

‘Chengdu’ in my garden, which was flowering in late September

Now to look at some of the hybrids created in New Zealand

Queen’s Grace, growing in my garden

Queen’s Grace is a cross between I. wattii X I. tectorum hybridized by Jean Stevens in 1955.  36" (91 cm), standards are clear lavender-blue, the falls same flecked deeper at haft; multi-ridges crest on falls, cream-white flecked brown.

We still have a number of gardens where it is blooming in New Zealand.

Question Mark

Registered in 1982 by Revie Harvey, this Evansia grown to 54-60” (137-152cm).  Smooth pale lilac, deeper toned fleck markings, bright gold crests, signal points radiate from crests, dark green foliage topping dark purple green canes.  It is of unknown parentage but probably I. wattii X Darjrrling or I. Confusa

Kilkivan

Registered by Mrs M Harvey in 1982, this Evansia grows to 54-60” (137-152 cm).  It is pale lavender with pale gold crest on white zone, numerous deep lavender signal markings, pale lavender style arms with fringed tips; deep green foliage topping medium green canes.  Parentage is an Ellis white sdlg. X Question Mark.

In Part Two we will continue to look at what I have growing in my garden, and others from around the country.

Louisiana Irises -- Who could possibly have one favorite?

By Ron Killingsworth

A clump of mixed Louisiana irises

We grow a lot of Louisiana irises -- about 80,000 plants in all, and over 500 varieties.  Iris lovers often ask me to name my favorite Louisiana iris, at which point I begin rattling off the names of 15 to 20 varieties.  I really do not have an all time "favorite" but I will share some of those that are in my current "top 30" list.  

'Adell Tingle' (Hutchins, B 2006)

This iris was named for my mother's sister, my Aunt Adell, and is one of my favorite irises because of the name and because it is such a pretty lavender iris, with veining and ruffling.

'Amber Goddess' (Arny, C 1963)

Charles Arny produced a lot of Louisiana irises in the 50's and 60's.  This iris is registered as "amber" but can look quite red at times.  The darker style arms really set the flower apart from others.

'Atchafalaya' (Campbell, F 1998)

 The Atchafalaya Basin in south Louisiana is well know for the bald cypress trees and "swamps" located within the basin.  The iris is a beautiful open form dark red violet with a halo.  This large clump shows that it is a great garden iris.

'Bayou Tiger' (Strawn, K 1993)

This iris is a great Louisiana iris.  It has distinctive colors and has a great Louisiana name!  The "tiger" part of the name comes from the Louisiana State University (LSU) colors displayed by the flowers.  Every Tiger fan should grow this iris.

'Brazos Gold' (Strawn, K 1993)

A beautiful bright yellow with orange signals.  It is a great addition to any garden.

'Bryce Leigh' (Chowning, F 1973)

Is it starting to show that I really like a lot of the older cultivars?  This iris has flowers in the open form and is registered as "pale lavender" but looks more pink to me after it fades a little.  The maroon surrounding the signal and showing on the style arms will help anyone identify this iris from a long distance.

'Flash Harry' (Davis, Penny 2008)

This iris out of Australia by Penny Davis is a beautiful wine "blush" or red sort of overlaid with orange, with ruffling and lots of other beautiful things happening in the blooms.  It is in my top ten!

'Frank Chowning' (Rowlan, Henry 1984)

Of course this iris was named for Frank Chowning who gave us many wonderful Louisiana irises.  This iris is registered as "currant red" and has a nice bright yellow steeple signal with overlapping form flowers.

'Fringed Gold' (Shepard, D.L. 1992)

This "brick red" iris has a lot going on in the bloom.  The spray pattern around the signal is a characteristic I like in several other irises.  The style arms are edged yellow and there is a nice halo around the petals.  A beauty to behold.

'Gulf Moon Glow'  (Faggard, A. 1994)

Nice bluish stands with yellow green falls, green style arms -- even claims to have a slight fragrance.  I love this iris and grow it in about 15 different locations!

'Plum Good'  (Nelson, I 2001)

This iris has been around under the garden name "Plum Good" and was only recently registered.  It is certainly "plum" colored and I think it is a very "good" iris -- you should be growing it!

'Point Aux Chenes' (Musacchia, J 2005)

I know, I know!  You can't pronounce the name of the iris nor the name of the hybridizer.  Well, welcome to Louisiana.  This iris is registered as "golden peach self" but looks more "orange" to me.  It has a distinctive signal and is a great garden iris.  You can learn to pronounce the name or just give it a garden name of your own!  By the way, Joe Musacchia lives SOUTH of New Orleans -- yes, south of New Orleans.

'Prix D'Elegance' (Pryor, Heather 1995)

I really love the iris and the name.  It is a great garden iris and grows like a weed here in NW Louisiana.  It is registered as "rose pink" with lemon style arms.  A great iris!

'Splitter Splatter' (Grieves, D. R. 2004)

Another iris out of Australia that caused quite a stir when it was first introduced in the USofA.  I had people calling me from Florida wanting to purchase it and I had never even heard of it!  Now we grow it and it is certainly a "novelty" iris that will add excitement to your garden.

'Starlite Starbrite' (Granger, M 1985) and 'Delta Star' (Granger, M 1966)

The white "cartwheel form" iris in the front is Starlite Starbrite and the darker blue one in the back is the "cartwheel form" Delta Star.  Marvin Granger produced quite a few of these "laid out flat" irises that have all falls and no stands.  Starlite Starbrite is a show winner and has won many blue ribbons.

'Tantra' (Dunn, Mary 1998)

Mary Dunn lived in CA and hybridized many award winning irises.  This light orchid colored iris has lighter stands and that wonderful darker veining from the signal down to the edge of the petals.

'Texas Toast' Mertzweiller, J 2005)

Texas Toast is one of the most unusual tetraploids (having four times the haploid number of  chromosomes in the cell nucleus- most Louisianas are diploid) of the few registered.  It does in fact look like a nice lightly toasted bread.  Joe Mertzweiller did a lot of work on converting diploids to tetraploids and this seedling was still around when he passed away.  Marie Caillet registered it for him in 2005, long after his death.

'Wood Violet' (Dormon, Ruth 0 1943)

Most growers of Louisiana irises are familiar with Caroline Dormon but not all know that her sister Ruth also grew and hybridized Louisiana irises.  This is a very late bloom with a white spray pattern around the signals.  An oldie but a goodie!

'Cotton Plantation' (Dunn, Mary 1994)

When you see a clump of this iris in full bloom you will indeed think you have wandered into a cotton field in Louisiana or Texas.  The beautiful white blooms sure do look like cotton bolls.

'Heavenly Glow' (Morgan, Richard 1988)

This iris is a beauty.  It grows well and has very green style arms.  The signal is surrounded by an orange red coloring.  It is indeed "heavenly"!

'Professor Neil' (Mertzweiller, Joe 1990) and 'Her Highness' (Levingston 1957)

Professor Neil is one of the tetraploids hybridized by Professor Mertzweiller in the 50's and 60's.  It is a great garden iris and my favorite of the "professors" (a group of tetraploid Louisiana irises named by Mertzweiller for his professor friends at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette).  In the background is "Her Highness", a collected iris.giganticaerulea alba that is in my top ten!

'Just Helene' (Mertzweiller, J 1990)

This iris is an eye catcher!  The veining, the blue and yellow stands, the yellowish "ground" veined light blue falls, the green yellow signal!  Wow, beautiful and a great garden iris.

'Lone Star' (Campbell, Farron 1997)

Farron Campbell once owned Lone Star Nursery in the great state of Texas.  He hybridized this iris that has i.hexagona in its parentage.  It is a very late bloomer and has a cartwheel form, laid out like a plate!  Very pretty.

'Longue Vue' (Haymon, Dorman - 1999)

This beautiful white iris with "laced" edgings was named for Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, LA, where you can find many Louisiana irises growing along with thousands of other plants.  My favorite white and among my all time top ten.

'Navajo Coral' (Shepard, D. L. 1996)

A "sandy coral" iris with yellow gold signals and greenish style arms.  Very distinctive and a great garden iris.  A treasure from the great state of AZ.


So, as you can see, I really like some of the older Louisiana irises, irises that are considered "historic" because of their age.  We still grow hundreds of irises registered in the period 1920 to 1960.  I like the older open forms and the smaller blooms -- yet I also like the more modern fancy ones.  I just love too many of them to chose one favorite.

Do you have trouble winnowing down your list to one favorite?  Tell us which ones you like and why in the comments section.

If you are interested in growing some of the beauties, contact the Society for Louisiana Irises for more information. You can also learn a lot more about irises by visiting the American Iris Society web site.

What Are They...Median Iris?

I am sitting here transfixed...by my window watching it rain--well actually pour down. This might not seem to be such an unusual thing, unless you know that we have had only .6 of an inch of rain since September 2010. Well, what am I doing sitting here…I’m going out to run in the rain! Will be back to work on this blog when it stops raining.

It is now 24 hours later and here I am; very happily back to my computer. My iris just got 1.44 inches of rain, all since I began working on this blog! Now I am watching out my window as a skinny red robin pecks at a peach that fell from my tree and a beautiful Baltimore oriole is eating off my hummingbird feeder and being buzzed by three hummers. I could be content to just watch it all, but I must begin this blog. It will be about my newest love in iris and I must tell you I am not an expert on them…the median iris. I planted my first medians four years ago, and I will tell you my progress at the end of this blog if you stick around to read it.  

Who's First In Line?

Median Iris –What are they? They are a group of bearded iris that are shorter than the tall bearded (TB) iris and taller than the miniature dwarf bearded (MDB). They bloom after the MDBs and mostly before the TB iris. They extend the iris bloom season with regal form, remarkable colors and patterns. Median iris are smaller and compact compared to the tall bearded iris. They make perfect plants for borders or in the front of your flower beds, and make ideal additions in rock gardens. Medians tolerate wide varieties of conditions being much more cold tolerant, withstanding strong winds, and strong rain downpours. When the Median Iris Society organized in 1948, five new classes of bearded irises (MDB, SDB, IB, MTB and BB) were added to the already popular TB iris class.

(click on images for a larger view)

The result of this effort was having four distinct bloom seasons starting with the miniature dwarf iris season, followed a little later by the standard dwarf iris season, and then later came the intermediate bearded iris season and finally the border (BB), miniature tall (MTB) and TB season.

Median iris come in four different classes.

1.   The crossing of I. pumila with the tall bearded (TB) iris resulted in what is known as the standard dwarf bearded iris (SDB) type. The SDBs are 8–15” in height with blooms that are 2-4” in width. The SDBs bloom after the miniature dwarf bearded iris and slightly into the intermediate iris bloom season. They have thick attractive mounds of sword-like green leaves that grow throughout most of the season. The SDBs have an enormous variety of colors and patterns and that combined with a great vigor and ease of growth make them a wonderful edition to all gardens.

2.   Then there are the crosses of SDBs with TBs (or TBs with species iris) that grow into the intermediate bearded iris (IB). The IBs are 16-27” tall with flowers that are 3½-5 wide. The IBs fit both in size and bloom time between the SDBs and the TBs. They are very hardy growers, dependable bloomers, disease resistant and can withstand high winds, sudden freezes, and other unexpected weather changes. They come in the full range of colors and combinations as the TBs.

3.   Next we have the miniature tall bearded (MTB) iris that are 16-25 inches in height with very slender dainty stalks and nicely branched stalks with flowers whose combined width and height is not more than 6” total. They started as diploid runts of iris that first appeared in TB gardens. Then hybridizers used I. aphylla's, a family of shorter tetraploid species bearded irises that increase branching and have smaller flowers than TB’s. They started by crossing I. aphylla with selected BB and short TB until they developed a tetraploid MTB that met the same requirements as the diploid MTB. The MTBs have a very pleasant fragrance that is essential in this lovely iris also aptly named the table iris. The flowers are less ruffled and more tailored than the TBs. The boom season is later the IBs and about the same as border bearded (BB) and TB. This class is ideal for floral arrangements. MTBs are the best branched of the medians, and fit nicely in the garden.

4.  The class of medians known as border bearded (BB) started as small versions of TB iris that did not overpower other plants in an ornamental bed, and did not blow over in high winds, and worked well in flower bed borders. Over the years since BB became a class, hybridizers have made great strides in the improving the vigor, consistency of height, flower proportion, colors and color patterns. Bloomstalks of BB should be 16" to 27.5", the width of the flowers should not exceed 5”, the height of the flower should not exceed 8.5"and they should bloom along with the tall beardeds. BB iris look like and bloom like the TB iris but their size are smaller and properly balanced for its smaller size with erect fans that do not obscure the blooms.

I am Debbie Strauss, a newbee in the median iris world. I am a member of The American Iris Society and just became the director in charge of the silent auction at the National Conventions. I am a Median Iris Society member and their new fundraising chair. I live in far West Texas in a desert-like environment. TB iris do wonderful here, especially if you stress them out before planting the new rhizomes (if you purchased them from anywhere except West Texas). Four years ago our local iris society hosted a fall regional convention for Texas; I was the iris auction chair. I wrote to every hybridizer I could and sent them a little money and asked for iris for our regional auction. I was not particular about what they sent and I received many many iris. Hmmm…lots of medians…their colors and patterns were too tempting, so I bid on and won many of them…I planted them and the first year they all did well and multiplied and at least half of them bloomed. Then the second year…I can’t even describe how delighted I was when the SDBs were lovely large clumps and bloomed beautifully. If you look at the photos below, you will see why my first plantings of median iris made me a big fan of the wonderful median iris classes.

The pictures below are from two year clumps! They are growing in my West Texas soil that is a very alkaline sandy mix. They are planted along side my hot driveway, with a large stinky hedge behind them. We get very little rain, only a few winter days below freezing, and rarely have below zero temperatures. We have wind with spring gusts from 30 – 60 mph nearly every day. To make it really bad; we had 68 days this summer of over 100-degrees and until last week only .6 inch of rain since last September. So for any iris to grow and prosper here…takes a miracle…well a very good hardy plant anyway. 

Even though the TB irises are the most popular iris among the AIS membership, I believe it might be because conventions and shows are scheduled around the bloom season of the TB iris. Perhaps like me, many people have not given the medians a chance. Even though only one border bearded iris, 'Brown Lasso' and one Intermediate Bearded iris, 'Starwoman,' have been awarded the AIS’s highest award, the Dykes Medal, I think those numbers will increase. Here are pictures of these two wonderful median Dykes winners.

Brown Lasso

I am predicting with all the stellar work of the median iris hybridizers median iris popularity will increase leaps and bounds in the near future. If you have not yet planted a median iris or two, take a leap of faith, look through the many colors, patterns, sizes, and bloom times and get started. Oh, by the way… I took "Best of Show" two years with a median iris! They thought they scheduled the show for TB bloom!

Beyond the Bloom

By Chad Harris

When people first think of an iris they envision blooms and the many colors of the rainbow they come in. In fact Iris is known as the Greek goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. Here I would like to be your messenger to open your mind and eye to look beyond the bloom.

Bearded iris give a bold look to the garden

If you site your bearded iris right with good air circulation they give a bold almost agave look to the garden.

Like stain glass the leaves will glow with the sun

Using Iris pallida variegata in the garden will brighten up an area. If you can, site it so the sun shines through for you to enjoy the stain glass effect. Who needs a bloom with this look?

‘Amethyst Echo’ carries the soft foliage of a full fountain Siberian iris

Broad and upright leaf of ‘Swans In Flight’ gives strong texture

‘Banish Misfortune’ with its thin graceful arching leaves gives an airy look

Siberian iris for most are easy to grow and should be a go to iris for majority of gardeners. The graceful foliage whether upright or fountain, comes in all sorts of shades of green, from blue-green to lime-green. However you need to get out to the farms before and after bloom to inspect the plants. Then you can chose which color and texture is needed for your garden.

With its thin grass like foliage Iris graminea, a Spuria,

makes for a fine filler at only a foot tall

Spuria hybrids make for a bold statement
across many different climate zones

If sited correctly the Spuria family are very tough plants. They are one of the few iris that will thrive for a long time in the same place without division. Many different species are smaller and make for great shorter grass like mounds as fillers for the garden. The newer hybrids come in a range of size from a few feet tall to five feet and greater. With their stiff upright foliage they make a bold statement in the garden.

Iris ensata ‘Hekiou’ showing the full fountain form

Japanese iris ‘Little Bow Pink’ a top award winner has beautiful upright foliage

Japanese, Iris ensata are more temperamental to grow with a very narrow cultural window. However if you have the right conditions, these late blooming iris will give a grace and charm to your garden. Plants can be two feet tall to six feet with majority of them three to four feet tall.

Spec-X ‘Ally Oops’ is a vigorous plant with a full fountain look

‘Holden’s Child’ gives a strong bold look to the garden

Specie crosses are made to get vigorous plants that are tolerant of varied conditions in the garden. Many growers will list these as Spec-X.

A newer Spec-X is called “Pseudata”, these plants are the cross of a Spec-x ‘Gubijin’ x Iris ensata.

Spec-X ‘Violet Swallows’ has a nice glow to the plant in the early spring

‘French Buttercream’ emerges early in the spring
with bright yellow foliage greening up later.

I am very enthused with these new hybrids as they can bring a unsurpassed brightness to the early spring garden. These plants will green up later in the season with stronger light of the sun.

Plants of the new Spec-X shine in the early Spring fields with their yellow foliage

This chameleon effect may not be as strong in other parts of the country for the lack of cloudy Spring days as compared to our days here in the Pacific Northwest.

‘Gerald Darby’ with its upright purple based foliage is a handsome plant

Iris laevigata ‘Seiran’ is easy to grow in containers

Many of these iris that I have been speaking of can be grown in containers.

Container grouping on the patio deck

Grouped together on the patio or deck can make for a dramatic scene, mixing all of the different textures available.

Here I have barely touched on the 250 plus species of iris that may be grown and what they can bring to the garden beyond the bloom. There is an iris for water, desert, sun, shade, and everything in between.  Meet with your local farm, iris club, or at the National level of The American Iris Society to learn what can be successfully grown in your own area.