Satisfying Louisiana Irises’ Craving for Water

By Patrick O'Connor

If there’s anything that is generally understood about Louisiana irises it is that they like water.   As these irises have risen from obscurity to popularity among gardeners, however, their promoters have had to walk a fine line in describing their water needs.

On the one hand, it has been important to convince people that these “swamp plants” do not have to grow in standing water.  Gardeners can succeed quite well with them in a bed alongside annuals and perennials of many kinds.  On the other, optimal performance may not be attained if their Louisiana irises get only the amount of water that the “average” plant needs. 

Louisianas suffer if they get too dry, even for a brief period.  They require consistent moisture.  If they dry out during an even brief drought, especially from spring through summer, they will begin to have scruffy foliage and, in the extreme, go essentially dormant.  Generally, with insufficient water, they enter an in-between state in which much of the foliage is just yellowed and unattractive.  This is hardly a fatal condition, but it is not a pleasing sight.  Ample water is the preventative.  (Soil fertility is also critical, but that is mostly another story).

The thirstiest Louisiana, Iris giganticaerulea, in a swamp in Jean Lafitte, LA.

I. brevicaulis, the least thirsty of the species, growing in Gary Babin's Baton Rouge backyard, nowhere near standing water.

Different Louisiana irises may have a greater or lesser tolerance for insufficient moisture.  In a separate series of blogs, Joe Musacchia is describing the background and characteristics of the species that are the foundation of today’s cultivars.  For present purposes, it is enough to say that some of the species (Iris giganticaerulea and I. nelsonii) are indeed swamp dwellers, found growing in standing water.  (The East Coast species I. hexagona appears to like the same or similar conditions as I. giganticaerulea, but this iris has been used only rarely in developing the modern cultivars.)  At the other extreme, I. brevicaulis is an inhabitant of low, damp spots, but is not generally found in anything beyond the mucky edges of water.  I. fulva is intermediate in this regard, often the inhabitant of wet ditches and sloughs that may hold water all or most of the year.  The water requirements of a cultivar will depend upon the often obscure or unknown genetic mix of these species in its background.

The issue is how to deal with the water needs of Louisiana irises so that they are respectable citizens of the garden when not in bloom, as well as how to encourage plentiful and beautiful flowers.  There are any number of approaches that will work so long as the result is that the irises remain consistently wet.  One could drag out a hose and attend to their thirsty cravings by hand watering.  Not many of us would elect that course, at least for very long.  I once used a sprinkler placed around the garden on a rotating basis, but even that got old, and I was not really as consistent as necessary.  I had reasoned that in the New Orleans area where there are 60 inches of rainfall annually and where the irises are native, it should not be necessary to take herculean steps to water these plants.  I was wrong, and I was never satisfied with the way my irises looked in the hot summer months.

A switch to a series of sprinklers each on a timer was a huge improvement.  That arrangement created the consistency of moisture that the irises require, and for the first time, the foliage on my irises remained green and attractive right through the summer heat.  Only in the fall when the new growth cycle began did I have to apply serious work to clean up the iris foliage.

The weeds responded well to this approach also.  I found it difficult to keep up with the weeding, especially with some noxious non-native perennials, such as alligator weed. 

When I operated a nursery, Zydeco Louisiana Iris Garden, I had grown many plants in half barrels with no drain holes.  That worked well generally, but most of those barrels were at another location, not in my home garden.   My primary objective at home has been to maintain an attractive landscape and not have it look like a production farm, even though I did use much of the yard space for nursery operations.  I was in the market for water-holding containers without an industrial appearance.

A mortar mixing tub from Home Depot, a future home for Louisiana irises.

The solution came to me in an email from Wayland Rudkin.  A California hybridizer, Wayland sent me a picture of his ‘Ginny’s Choice’, later a Debaillon Award winner, growing in a shallow  tub of the kind sold in the construction sections at Home Depot and Lowe’s for mixing mortar.  The tub in Wayland’s picture was packed with happy, healthy looking irises. 

These mixing tubs are sold in two sizes, one about six inches deep that measures 18 by 24 inches and the other two inches deeper and slightly longer and wider.  There are no drain holes.  The smaller size sells for between six and seven dollars and the larger between twelve and thirteen dollars.  They are black and made of some sort of thick plastic material.   They will crack if hit hard, stepped on, or lifted while full of soil, but they otherwise seem sturdy and probably are reasonably long lasting. These trays can be sunk into the ground or placed on the surface. 

I opted for the smaller, shallower tubs for reasons of economy and to maximize the number of cultivars I can grow.  I have replaced most of my iris beds with these mixing tubs set one next to the other on the soil surface or on landscape fabric in a few areas.  The rims of the tubs can be overlapped to prevent weeds from growing between them.  I have found that the tubs currently sold by Home Depot work better for overlapping than the ones from Lowe’s because of a flatter rim.  The tubs can be angled slightly to accommodate curved beds or walkways. 

Mixing tubs in place but not yet mulched.

A garden path with tubs cleverly disguised by rows of bricks and Live Oak leaf mulch. 

If the tubs are not dug into the soil, it is necessary to resort to camouflage for an unobtrusive look.  In my case, I lined the paths in my garden with bricks stacked two or three high.  When mulch is added and the irises are growing well, the tubs are essentially hidden, and the look, to me, appears natural.

After two and a half years, I consider growing Louisiana irises in these tubs to be a successful experiment.  The irises so far have grown very well and bloomed beautifully.  Like irises in beds, I anticipate that the tubs will have to be reworked periodically.  The soil undoubtedly will have to be replenished, although I have added an inch or so each year.  Either there is a bit of subsidence or some soil washes out, but in either case I try to keep the soil level near the top in order to allow maximum room for root development and to prevent too much standing water.  If the trays are full or nearly full of soil, evaporation quickly takes care of any surface moisture that might attract mosquitoes. 

I did worry when I began using the mixing tubs that six inches of soil would not be sufficient for good growth of the irises.  I have found only a few varieties with roots so long that they hit the bottom of the tubs and then flatten across the bottom.  Even with those, the irises appear to grow happily.  Except for cost, I probably would have opted for tubs two inches deeper, but I have not detected any problem with the shallower model.

Garden scenes during the first and second seasons with the tubs in place.

I will not go so far as to say that weeding has become a delight, but it is much easier to pluck a weed from a mucky bog than from garden soil.  Many common weeds do not like the bogs, although one can expect a few new ones to appear.  The iris bogs are no replacement for diligence, though, and they will look bad if unattended.  Of course, any perennial weeds growing beneath the tubs will be entirely frustrated.  This gives me great pleasure.

A bog replacement for normal beds does not require a landscape of uninterrupted Louisiana irises.  There are many interesting plants not often found in the garden that can be grown in the tubs with the irises.  Marsh Fern (Thelypteris palustris) and various forms of papyrus thrive under these conditions.  I devote one entire tub to a Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), which provides great texture that contrasts nicely with iris foliage.  Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata) has beautiful blue-purple flowers and also a nice contrast of foliage texture.  The deep red foliage of the hybrid Crinum‘Menehune’, Red Bog Lily, is a wonderful accent, also.  The use of little bogs for irises opens up a new palette of companion plants.

There are some issues that must be dealt with if employing bog culture.  I have found a few cultivars that do not thrive in the tubs.  These seem prefer a good garden bed but with ample moisture.  There are not many, however, and trial and error is the only way I know of to discover this preference.

The shallow tubs will dry out quickly if not watered.  I had thought that this approach would be a better way to reduce the amount of water I use.  That has not been the case.  When I apply water, however, the irises get to grow in boggy conditions, and almost all varieties thrive year round. 

I have never been sure how to fertilize irises grown in containers that do not drain.  Fertilization is the second key to success with Louisianas.  All the fertilizer rate recommendations assume beds or containers through which water drains rather than accumulates.  I have no idea what happens with the chemistry in those tubs.  I have used mainly time release fertilizers applied as if the tubs were containers with drain holes.  It has seemed to work, but I am sure there is a much more refined and informed approach that would be preferable.  I suppose a container system would be better that more closely emulated a real bog in which there is some natural, albeit very slow, movement of water.

There are many other approaches through which the thirst of Louisiana irises can be satisfied.  For example, Benny Trahan in Slidell, Louisiana, creates “iris paddies”, which essentially are retention ponds with a few inches of water into which he places potted irises.  The plants are able to suck up as much water as they want.  Eileen Hollander in New Orleans is also using mixing tubs, and has written an account of her experience in the Spring 2014 issue of SLI’s publication Fleur de Lis.  Robert Treadway, from Carlisle, Arkansas, wrote of his development of plastic lined beds in an article that can be found on the SLI website at:  Development of Plastic Lined Beds

While I regard the creation of iris bogs using mixing tubs to be a successful experiment, it undoubtedly is not one that should be tried without modification in all parts of the country.  The weather in, say, Montana, may argue for a different approach. But a key to success with Louisiana irises is water, regardless of how it is delivered.

Reblooming Iris Program: Zone 6: On the Cheap

by Betty Wilkerson

Many of the improvements in irises have been made by the backyard gardener, and some of their creations have won The Dykes Medal. You can spend a small fortune, hunting up fancy tweezers and paint brushes, but it's possible to breed irises without all this. When I started my rebloom program, I had a child in elementary school, and two in high school, so I couldn't justify spending much money on the iris program. I bought a cheap iris colletion from Schreiners and the next year I ran across a really cheap fall blooming iris collection from Fields, a mail order catalog. Then, I bought a few rebloomers from Monty Byers. 

An empty milk jug, cut into strips, and then cut again, made good tags.  I punched holes in one corner, with a hole punch, and used some orange yarn from my crochet bag to make ties. They were neat, but the birds really liked them, too, and used several in building their spring nests. If one was missing, I learned to look to the tree tops.  The tags would glisten and reflect sunshine from up in the trees. After I moved to Allen county in 2003, I switched to strips of plastic venetian blinds shown below.  To prevent fading, I use paint markers. I made 150 tags so I would not have to reuse any during any season. Early on, I bought a couple of pair of tweezers from Wal-Mart. I stressed over the method of pollen transfer until I found I was comfortable with using my ring finger as the implement of transfer.  Works fine for me.

A few years back, I bought a large garden bag that will hold all of my hybridizing equipment, and then some. Before the new bag, I would put everything in a gallon size ziplock bag.  The new bag is lined with pockets on the inside, which is convenient for pollen envelopes, tweezers, seed packets, nozzles for the hose, etc.. It even has a clip for my keys, if I choose to use it.  

Garden Bag

Hybridizing Tags

Lace Bonnets

The first summer I was in Allen County, 2004, a pod went missing.  It was my favorite from 'Strictly Ballroom' X 'Mariposa Skies.' Sorry, I do not have pictures of the irises. I spent way too much time looking for the pod, but with absolutely no luck. The following winter I made a bunch of these lace bonnets to protect my pods from the deer.  Haven't lost a pod since 2004.

Personal Size Envelopes
for Seed

Once the seed are harvested from the pods they are usually wet or at least damp and they need a home until time to plant.  Rather than take chances of getting the seed mixed up, it's just easier to go straight to the envelopes.  I put all of the permanent information onto the envelope, pod parent, pollen parent, and seed count, then I put the seed into the envelopes.  I place it/them on an envelope rack to dry.  I shake the envelope each day and turn it upside down. This is to make sure all seed fall to the other side.  They are usually dry within a week and can rest until planting time at the end of Oct.  The soil must be cool.

Mum Pots for Germination

Chicken Wire

Soil should be placed in the pots about six weeks before the seed are planted.  A natural settling of the soil in the pots will leave air in the soil, important, where tamping does not. In my zone 6 garden it's important to put chicken wire (mine is plastic and reusable) over the pots to keep out the vermin.  In my zone 6 garden the average date to expect sprouts is April 1.

Landscape Fabric

As I've grown older and more crippled, I've adjusted the way I care for my iris. The cost of my operation went up at the same time.  DeWitt woven landscape fabric is really good.  I buy it in big rolls that will cover about five beds.  I like the stuff with the green lines because it helps make straight rows and I need all the help I can get.  Each spring I must check for crowding and cut the landscape fabric where needed.  I use a thick grade of black plastic for the paths. I use a piece of pvc pipe with paint markers every six inches to measure between plants.

If you want to make some iris crosses, but don't think you can afford the equipment?  Please give it another thought.  Be creative. We need reblooming hybridizers in the middle and cooler states, zones 4-6.  To get rebloom you will need to use really strong rebloom stock. I'm always willing to discuss anything iris!  Just find me on Facebook or e-mail me at bridgeintime@aol.com. Put "irises" in the subject line. Good luck.

The Iris Garden: Premio Firenze -- Florence, Italy, Part II

Part II: The Iris Garden
By Andi Rivarola

Iris pallida and olive trees at the Prunetti Farm in Chianti area

Various activities and initiatives have taken place during the life of Premio Firenze and some of the most important to are: 

• In 1963, the planning and development of the "First International Iris Symposium" 
• Collaborated since 1997 with the Department of Plant Biology of the University "La Sapienza" in Rome by participating in meetings and seminars.
• Collaborated since 1998 with the University "La Sapienza" in Rome and The Lynnean Society in London to promote the Iris International Conference "Iris & Iridaceae: Diversity and Methodology."
• In 2006, the planning and development of the "Second International Iris Symposium."

Winner of the 2012 Competition "Cheyenne My Dog" by Marucchi

Premio Firenze also took part in exhibitions and specialized events in the field of landscape and gardening, organized exhibitions, courses  in hybridization, courses for judges and lectures in schools.

2012 Firenze Competition Signs 

The Main Garden

The Iris Garden was set up on a hilly land previously cultivated but now surrounded by olive trees as well as other plants of the native Tuscan collections including: cypress trees, Judas trees (Cercis siliquastrum L.), strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo L.), laurel (Laurus nobilis L.) and some varieties of maples. Irises are accompanied by roses, and also bushes to highlight paths and walkways. But it is the iris plants and their variety of forms and colors that almost completely cover the garden and when they are in full bloom turn it into a colorful landscape. The vast majority of irises are tall bearded (almost 3000), but there are also intermediate, border and dwarf irises. The international competition variety has practically guaranteed continued improvement and renovation of the main iris collection, making it one of the largest and interesting in the world.

Judges in the Garden - Zdenek Seidl, Jill Bonino, Laura Bassino, Gisela Danthe, Augusto Bianco

Ponte Vecchio and River Arno, Florence

The garden also contains Siberian irises, Pacific Coast Native, spurias, and around the pond area there are some Louisiana, pseudoacorus and Japanese irises.

Bearded and beardless species irises typical in the region are represented by iris pallida, iris germanica, iris florentina, iris setosa, iris unguicularis, and iris ochroleuca 

There are numerous collections of historic irises in the garden among which we should mention:

• The collection of the American Dykes Medal Winners since 1927 to today. 
• Some historic irises from the Presby Memorial Garden in Montclair, NJ.
• Historic irises from the Prague Botanical Garden, the Czech Republic.
• A full collection of plants of the first and second prize winners of the international competition since 1957.
• And also a selection of all the plants that participated in the competition, organized by years, from the first competition to date.

A part of the garden was reserved for ARSIA, a local Tuscan agency focused on development and innovation in the agriculture and forestry industry, and the plants included were chosen for their conservation of genetic material of the genus iris.

Valerio Romano, Director of the Firenze Competition, in the Garden

The Garden at Villa Gamberaia

Note: This article contains information originally shared online in Italian by Saverio Pepe, a resident of Florence, who kindly gave permission to use his material and images for this blog post. The pictures on Part II are all from Jill Bonino who participated in Premio Firenze as a judge in 2012. 

Translated by Andi Rivarola 

If you missed Part I

Four months of Pacifica Iris blooms, and still going in late June

Kathleen Sayce

This title is not a mistake, nor an Energizer battery advertisement: Pacifica Iris begin flowering in March, and are still flowering in my garden (on the West Coast at 46 N latitude) in June.  Blooms shift from one group to another over the months. I did not initially plan for a long bloom season, it happened by chance.  

An early I. douglasiana selection 

PCI 'Premontion of Spring' also flowers sporadically from fall to spring Equinox,
 ending in late March. 

The Pacifica Iris blooming year begins in the fall, with PCI 'Premontion of Spring', a hybrid developed by Garry Knipe, Cupertino, CA.   It flowers mid-fall through late winter. In my garden, it starts in September, and continues to spring, straddling the Fall to Spring equinoxes, tossing out a flower or two every few weeks. Garry is working on other early flowering hybrids, so look for more plants like this in coming years. 

I also grow several selections of Iris unguicularis, which flower sporadically through winter, peaking in March, and I. danfordiae and I. reticulata, which usually flower in February and March.

I. unguicularis flowers sporadically
all winter into early spring; not a
PCI, it may cross with them.

The main flowering event begins in mid March to early April, with many hybrids opening flowers in just a few weeks. The race is on each year to see which one will flower first. In 2015, PCI 'FingerPointing' had colored buds showing, but PCI 'Blue Plate Special' opened first. A week later, dozens of hybrids were flowering. 

PCI 'Blue Plate Special' is one of several
blues that come on in April.

PCI 'Daria' is another sturdy main season
flower.

This seedling yellow is from a mix of tall yellows
from Ghio; it also starts a bit later.

   

PCI 'Rodeo Gulch' starts a few weeks after other hybrids

This main season of blooms from hybrid plants lasts six to eight weeks or more, depending on weather. Hot days will bring flowers on quickly, and then finish quickly. In cool weather, the hybrids may flower for more than ten weeks, from early April well into June. Species that flower during this period include I. innominata (usually early), various I. douglasiana selections straddling the whole period, and I. chrysophylla.

By June, most hybrids are done. This year, PCI 'CapeFerrelo' and a seedling of PCI 'Untitled' kept opening flowers into mid June, one or two at a time. By then, the flower show shifted to Iris tenax, late flowering I. douglasiana types, and other species crosses, including I. tenax x I. innominata and I. chrysophylla x I. tenax.

Species flowers aren't as showy as hybrids, and the color palette is 

more limited, but a month after the commercial hybrids are done, these are going strong. I particularly like I. douglasiana from Mendocino Coast Botanic Gardens, and Cape Blanco, for their late purple flowers, and dwarf I. douglasiana, from the SPCNI seed exchange, for very low plants that flower in June to early July most years.  

I. tenax, Neahkahnie seacliffs, south
Clatsop Co., Oregon, has a
 wonderful late show of flowers

Wild-collected I. tenax from southern Clatsop County, Oregon, flowers reliably in June in my garden, usually peaking as the first lilies come into bloom. I also have a purple small-flowered I. douglasiana x I. chrysophylla, also from the seed exchange, that peaks in early June; the plant is taller than most hybrids; the latter tend to be well under two feet tall.

I. innominata x I. tenax is also late.
The original seed lot gave
 seven color patterns.

The nicest aspect of late flowering species is that bees easily find the flowers, which set a lot of seed to share out to others. In my garden, early to mid season flowers (PCI hybrids) don't always get pollinated. Poor seed set early in the season was very noticeable this year. I'm looking into ways to encourage bumblebees and other cool season bees to help this along. Early seed set is less problematic in warmer gardens, and plants are probably taller too.

Late and low-growing, this I. douglasiana is usually the last PCI to flower. Flowers and foliage are under 12 inches tall. 

I'm waiting to see which plants flower last this year: dwarf I. douglasiana or I. innominata x I. tenax? Meanwhile, lilies are opening first blooms all over the garden, and will carry the flower banner forward to early September.

TALL BEARDED IRISES WITH UNKNOWN PARENTS

BY DAWN MUMFORD 

'War Sails' (Schreiner 1983) Unknown parentage

This year I resolved to try hybridizing irises.  I was drawn in by a YouTube video by Mark Richards of Pleasant Valley Iris Farm,  here,  and an interesting article by Dan Holt, here.  

These references took the mystery and fear out of hybridizing, so I decided to write this article, geared toward the novice iris hybridzer.  I'm just learning about it and want to share with other beginners what I learned.  

I joined the Facebook page IRIS HYBRIDIZERS about three months ago.  I immediately put my foot in my mouth and showed my ignorance on the subject by stating 

"I don’t know why but it surprises me that there are so many irises with unknown ancestors that are allowed to be registered on the American Iris Registry.  It just seems like a hybridizer should know the genealogy when he or she registers it."

A number of people took issue with this statement because I used the word "allowed", and what followed was an enlightening exchange with some important hybridizers.   What I wanted to know was what circumstances lead to hybridizers not knowing one or both parents when they register new iris?  The following is what I learned when I stirred up the hornet's nest.  

The obvious reason is that some iris crosses are the results of “bee pods,” meaning a bee has brought pollen to a flower and pollinated it and the result is a swollen pod. The grower would know the pod parent but would not know which flower or flowers the bee had visited before coming to pollinate that iris. He or she could decide to let that pod ripen and save and plant the seeds anyway.  

There are also some other less obvious reasons for a breeder not to know parentage.  One hybridizer said he always labeled his crosses with a label but he had a teenage neighbor with Down’s Syndrome who got a kick out of changing the signs around. Another said they knew of a certain hybridizer who invented pedigree information if he didn’t happen to like the hybridizer whose plant he was using for breeding. Another had a cat who took out the labels and played with them.  Another claimed that there was at least one breeder who just didn’t want to be bothered with registration and got cross with the registrar over it. He didn’t have adequate records to start with, and made stuff up.  There were also several hybridizers who had iris gardens with crosses in them all labeled when terrible weather took out the labels.  A lot of information was lost during hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.
   

One of our well-known and respected hybridizers said that a lot of people seem to take registration as a kind of stamp of approval, deeming something as worthy of being sold, or like a patent or something.  I was one of those people.  As it turns out, it’s just about ensuring “one iris, one name.”  That made perfect sense to me.  Another said that registration aids when giving out awards later on. 

Another comment was that some hybridizers were afraid people would steal their ideas.  Later in the thread someone said that hiding parentage deliberately is a useless exercise.  He said by the time you have registered an iris you are already about 5 years or more ahead of anyone who would copy it. 

There are many wonderful irises whose parentage or partial parentage is unknown.  Here are some of examples of irises that I grow that we don’t know one or both of the parents.  All are lovely and some are Dykes Medal winners.  

'Dusky Challenger' (Schreiner 1986) Unknown parentage Dykes Medal 1992

'Stepping Out' (Schreiner 1964) Unknown parentage Dykes Medal 1968

 'Clarence' (l. Zurbrigg 1990)  Unknown Parentage Wister Medal 

'Girly Girl' (Schreiner 2013) Unknown Parentage 

'Lioness' (Ernst 1989) Unknown Parentage 

'Salzburg Echo' (Schreiner 2009) Unknown Parentage 

'Sweet Serenade' (Schreiner 2011) Unknown parentage 

The following irises have the pod parent listed but not the pollen parent: 

'Tut's Gold' (Schreiner 1979)  Pod parent is listed as 'Saffron Robe' but the pollen parent is unknown          
                                                  

'Syrian Hills' (Schreiner 2012) Pod parent is 'Regal Affair' X 'Conjuration' and the pollen parent is unknown

'Picture Book' (Ghio 2006) This beauty's pod parent is 'Treasured' but the pollen parent is unknown

  

Unfortunately, my plan to begin breeding irises was foiled this year by torrential rain, but I am on the lookout for bee pods.  Maybe the bees did some work in the few moments that it wasn't raining.  

If this article sparks your interest in hybridizing I suggest you go to the two links above.  Although there are a number of good resources, these are the two I found most useful. Happy gardening, and let me know how it goes.

An Iris by Any Other Name

by Tom Waters

'Catchy Name' (Seligmann, 1983)

One of the things you may notice about serious iris enthusiasts (sometimes known as “irisarians”), as opposed to gardeners who casually grow a few, is an obsession with names. We go around earnestly correcting the names of irises people share on line or in person, sometimes even to the point of calling out minor spelling errors.

What is this about? Surely the flower’s loveliness and welcome presence in our gardens doesn’t depend on its name. Why is it so important to some of us enthusiasts?

It’s one of those things that most of us get very much indoctrinated about, early on in the learning process, as the iris hobby becomes more and more serious. It’s been part of iris culture for generations.

At one time, you see, names were in a state of chaos. The same plant would be passed around under any number of different names, and similar plants were sold or shared under the same name. Names would be casually translated from one language to another, with no one quite sure if they were meant to refer to the same plant or not. One of the first goals of the American Iris Society in the 1920s was to try to straighten out the confusion, by carefully documenting names from old magazine articles and catalogs and compiling a checklist. The American Iris Society is the international registration authority for all irises except those that grow from bulbs (like Dutch Iris and reticulatas). Ideally, every name is registered with the AIS along with a careful description before the iris it belongs to is sold or shared.

Iris pallida variegata, sometimes grown under the incorrect name "Zebra"

Without this care, the names become practically meaningless, and one cannot reliably purchase a particular cultivar or discuss its qualities with other growers.

This is especially important because so many irises resemble others, at least at first glance. Casual gardeners may be inclined to think that all pink irises are the same, or that the one they just bought from a garden center is “the same iris” grandma grew years ago, because they are both purple.

Any time an iris is sold or shared under an incorrect name, it makes headaches for those further down the line who want to know which iris they actually have.

Irises whose names are unknown are these days often called “noids” (for “no ID”). The term is cute and memorable, but alas it’s too close to the name of a well-known hybridizer of some decades past, Luella Noyd, so I prefer to avoid it. I’ve also seen them spoken of as UFOs (unidentified flowering objects).

 

The Internet has taken the problem of identifying irises to a whole new level. It has made it 100 times easier to get information on any subject, but 10,000 easier to get bad information on any subject, it seems. Every day, people post photos of irises asking for the name, and often just accept the first answer someone throws out. That can be worse than having no answer at all!

Very few irises are so distinctive that they can be unambiguously identified at a glance from a single photo. The only way to check a tentative identification is to acquire the true plant from a reliable source and grow it alongside your own. They should be identical in detail.

BB 'Oops' (Craig, 2003)

So what is a “reliable source”? The “big box” stores are notorious in selling mislabeled irises. Local garden centers are better, but still make quite a few mistakes. Iris sellers on Ebay are all over the map in terms of reliability. Your best bet is to stick to sellers who specialize in irises. Even that is not foolproof. A few years ago, I ordered the iris ‘Orange Crush’ from an iris grower with impeccable credentials. When it bloomed, it was not even the right color! I wrote to him and inquired about it. It turns out he grows his plants in alphabetical order, and the one I got was the previous one in the alphabet. Its name? ‘Oops’. That gave us a chuckle.

Some name confusions have been going on for so long that it can be quite difficult to sort them out. When I started growing irises in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the 1970s, a number of local growers had a historic iris ‘Mme. Chereau’. We all loved it, not least because it had been around since 1844! It turned out the plant we were all growing was actually an even older cultivar, ‘Swerti’. But because we had all seen it in each others’ gardens, we “knew” it was ‘Mme. Chereau’.  A photo of the impostor even made it into the American Iris Society book, The World of Irises, showing how difficult it can be to be sure of identifications, even on the best authority.

'Mme. Chereau' (Lemon, 1844)
photo: Mike Starhill

'Swerti'

Aware of this long-standing confusion, I resolved a couple years ago to grow these two irises in my garden and familiarize myself with their differences. Ironically, the ‘Mme. Chereau’ I acquired to make the comparison turned out to be – you guessed it! – ‘Swerti’.

A word of caution: The on-line Iris Encyclopedia, although hosted by the American Iris Society, is (like Wikipedia) maintained by users, and is not authoritative. The entries for some irises have incorrect photos.

For older irises, the Historic Iris Preservation Society is the best source of identification expertise. HIPS is home to experts who have made identification of older cultivars into a passion, delving into the subject with persistence and dedication, unearthing old photographs, documents, and descriptions. There are some confusions so old and entrenched, however, that even the experts can hold different views. Some irises have had whole articles and book chapters written about them, as researchers struggle to sort out their identity.

But you don’t have to be an expert to help with the problem of misidentified irises. Anyone can help by following one simple rule: don’t pass an iris around unless you are sure it is correctly named. If it came to you without a name, this will often mean growing the real thing side by side with your orphan. Even passing an iris on saying that you don’t know its name is not a good idea. Inevitably, someone down the line will be growing it and decide they “know” what it is anyway!

A second bit of advice: Don’t become indignant or defensive when someone tells you your iris is misidentified. It’s not a criticism, it’s a gift of better information than you had before! A thank-you is the appropriate response.

unidentified yellow TB

Some growers just destroy anything they are not sure of. That’s one way solve the problem, but sometimes an unidentified iris just pleads with you to give it a home. When we moved into our present house, there were some irises growing on the property. They turned out to be a yellow tall bearded, apparently of mid-twentieth-century vintage. They outperform almost everything else I grow, with tall stalks, clear color, and a long period of bloom. It’s hard to say good-bye to one of the best irises you have! I suspect this iris is the classic variety ‘Ola Kala’, but I will not share it under that name until such time as it passes the side-by-side test.

The Iris Garden: Premio Firenze -- Florence, Italy

Part I: The Start of a Beautiful Garden
By Andi Rivarola

Just as many of us in the U.S. were enjoying the gardens near Portland, Oregon during the National Convention of The American Iris Society, Italians and other European iris lovers were attending their own world iris gatherings. This post is about one such event, The Iris Garden and "Premio Firenze," in Florence, Italy.

The Iris Garden in Florence located at the Park Michelangelo was created to host the Annual International Competition, and its main prize, the “Premio Firenze” (Florence Award), was given for the first time in 1954. Crucial to the development of this event were Mr. Flaminia Specht and  Ms. Nita Stross Radicati, members of the Friends of Flowers Society. Active hybridizers, it was their energy and drive that brought the event to Florence, a city with an interesting historic relationship with the iris.

The then Commissioner of Fine Arts and Gardens, Piero Bargellini, immediately sensed the importance of the initiative, he worked actively to support it and he pushed for the municipality to assign an area on the eastern side of the park.

The Garden was an original project by architect G. Zetti and opened in May 1957, after plant donations were made by many foreign growers, including a large collection of historic irises donated by The Presby Memorial Iris Garden in Montclair, New Jersey, U.S.

In 1967 the lower area was built to house a pond in marshy ground surrounding the Japanese and Louisiana irises.

Mr. Saverio Pepe Enjoying the view

The Iris Garden is run by the Italian Iris Society, founded in Florence in March of 1959 mainly for the purpose of managing the garden designed to accommodate the International Iris Competition and protect the numerous collections of plants it received.

More on Part II...



Note: This article was original posted in Italian by Saverio Pepe, a resident of Florence, who kindly gave permission to use his material and images for this blog post. 

Translated by Andi Rivarola