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Where
the garden meets the wild
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IRIS FLEUR-DE-LYS
Iridaceae (Iris family)
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Return
to Plants Index Bulbs
Index Regeliocyclus
Hybrids
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Iris tenax in
our garden at dusk in June.
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Grow Iris in stands and drifts. Glory! This is a vast group of plants,
important in myth and art, ancient in
cultivation. Please click on our pictures to enlarge them. Some Iris are bulbs,
others rhizomes. Some thrive under Arctic duress, others in the
glasshouse. Some like wet roots all year, some only in spring,
and some need drought once they've bloomed. Some have beards; our favor
tilts toward the beardless. With the exception of true woodlanders, Iris
need sun to
bloom well. When in doubt, plant in sun.
We have long
been advocates of species Iris. Those we offer include:
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Natives of China and Japan.
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Natives of North America, including the western Californicae.
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Junos ~ the often fragrant, bulbous iris of Central Asia.
All Junos can be grown in the glasshouse; we have decided to focus on
those that thrive in our garden, which gets rain in every
season.
New in our
repertoire are Regeliocyclus hybrids ~ crosses
that make some of the world's most difficult species easier to grow. We
have given them a separate page.
There's so much wrong information about Iris in the ether that we
recommend a few sound resources. |
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 Photograph ©
Pat Woodward 
Photograph ©
Paige Woodward |
Iris aucheri (Baker)
Sealy. Sky-blue form. Subgenus Scorpiris.
This is a new form
of a very fragrant
Juno. We are told that it is more compact than other forms in
commerce, with flowers that are a more intense blue and very early
flowering. We don't have a photograph yet. The ones at left show our usual
stock, which blooms in April-May. Iris aucheri has a flower set in the leaf axils,
with blue standards and falls and a yellow crest. Native to SE
Turkey, N Iraq, N Syria, Jordan, and NW Iran, it was named for Pierre Martin
Rémi
Aucher-Eloy (1792-1838), who collected in the region. Iris aucheri
prefers full sun, good drainage, neutral to alkaline soil, a fairly dry,
cold winter and a dry summer. Lift it from the garden if your summers
are wet. Summer is our only dry season, but we grow this outdoors in road
mulch. It also does well under glass. Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1994 to the species in general. Height 20-24 cm
(8-10"). Zone 6,
perhaps colder. Bulb (Fall shipping only).
$12.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
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Iris
aucheri (Baker)
Sealy. Deep indigo form. Subgenus
Scorpiris. We received this treasure as "Deep Indigo
Form." Much will depend on how your screen is calibrated. Some of you
may call it cobalt-blue. Never mind. This is a glorious iris and there
are only a few on our planet.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $25.00
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Photographs © Paige Woodward
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Iris bracteata
Sereno Watson. Siskiyou iris. Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series Californicae.
Flowers of cream to buff or yellow with a
yellow signal, spreading yellow crests and contrasting veins of
purple to chocolate bloom in May-June. The perianth tube is very short. The dark, shiny,
evergreen leaves are
ribbed, red-tinged at the base, and have a paler underside. Alternate,
bract-like
leaves clasp the flowering stem, giving it a braided appearance. This uncommon
plant is native to cool, shaded slopes in pine forest in just two counties where
the Siskiyou Range straddles the Oregon-California border. Our plants are
from several lots of wild seeds. Height 15-30 cm (6-12"). Zone 6,
perhaps colder.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $6.50
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
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Iris bucharica Foster
'Princess'. Subgenus Scorpiris.
A fragrant
Juno; our clone smells deliciously of Freesia. The flowers, crowded
in the leaf axils in April-May, are white with yellow blades on the
falls. Native to NE Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Our plants are garden
divisions. They like full sun and good drainage but they grow well
in the open garden and need not be lifted over the summer. This plant has
been sold as I. orchioides f. bicolor. The true
orchioides is different. Award of
Garden Merit (Royal Horticultural Society) 1994 to the species in
general. Height 25-35 cm (10-14"). Zone 6. Bulb (Fall shipping only).
$11.00
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Iris chrysographes Dykes. Gold-vein iris, black form. Jinmai
yuan wei (Chinese). Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series
Sibericae. Dark, dark,
purple-black flowers bloom on tall stems in June-July amid grey-green leaves. They bear only traces of the "gold writing" signal patch
for which the species is named. Native to meadows, marshes and open scrub
in N Myanmar (Burma) and SW China. Our plants are from
garden seed. Award of Garden Merit
(Royal Horticultural Society) 1994 to the species in general. Height
45 cm (18"). Zone 6.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $6.50
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
Photograph © Ken Walker
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Iris
chrysophylla Howell. Yellow-leaved Iris. Subgenus Limniris,
Section Limniris, Series Californicae. Delicate-looking flowers of cream
to white with veins of gold to purple bloom in May-June. The perianth tube
is long, emerging from closed spathes. The leaves are narrow, light green
(not yellow, despite the name) and sometimes glaucous and stained red at
the base. Native to open, coniferous woods in S
Oregon and barely into N California. Our plants are from wild seed
collected in Oregon. Height to 20 cm (8"), sometimes almost
stemless. Zone 6.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $9.50
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris collettii J.D.
Hooker. Plateau iris. Subgenus Nepalensis. From a small rhizome with fat roots rise 1-2 fragrant,
blue to violet flowers with a beard
like an orange caterpillar on the midrib. They bloom in May-June and are
at most 5 cm (2") tall. (Technically the stem stays in the ground;
the flower has a long neck, as in Crocus.) The ribbed, grey-green
leaves lengthen after blooming to 10-20 cm (4-8"). Native to open pine forest, scrub and grassland
on mountain plateaus in N Burma, Thailand, Tibet (Xizang) and Yunnan and Sichuan
provinces in China,
at altitudes to 3400 m (11,000'). Named for Sir Henry Collett (1836-1901),
who collected in most of those regions. Our plants descend from
Chinese rhizomes. Moist, rich loam and
part shade suit them. Zone 6?
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $5.50
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
Photograph ©
Pat Woodward |
Iris cristata Solander
ex Aiton. Crested iris. Subgenus Limniris, Section
Lophiris [Evansia irises]. Blooming
in April-July, these choice flowers, 3-4 cm (1.5") across, are blue
to lilac and reflexed, with 3 yellow-crested ridges on a white
signal bordered with purple. The short, scimitar-like leaves are keeled.
Native to woods and ridges in much of the east-central United States.
Often associated with calcareous soil, but doesn't object to our
acid loam. Easy in dappled shade to part-day sun as long as the roots are
cool and moist. The rhizomes should lie flat, with at least their lower
half in soil. Our plants are of garden origin; our pictures show them in
our garden. Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1994. Height of leaves to 15 cm (6"). Zone
6.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $5.00
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Photograph from Illustrated
Medicinal Plants of China

Photograph © Pat Woodward
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Iris
domestica (Goldblatt & Mabberley). Blackberry lily,
Leopard flower. She gan (Chinese). This beautiful plant is the
familiar Belamcanda chinensis (L.) Redouté with its name changed
after DNA analysis. It has flowers
in July-August that are peach to papaya-red and spotted with scarlet. Fat
seed pods burst open in September-October to reveal shiny black seeds
arranged like perfect blackberries. Each flower lasts
only a day, but
there are so many that bloom may
last for weeks. The swordlike, grey-green leaves form braided fans. They
are wonderful massed on a slope. As you might expect, Hemerocallis
(Daylily) and Iris dichotoma (Vesper Iris, Pardanthopsis) are its closest
relations.
Iris domestica is native to much of
E and SE Asia, from Japan to the
Himalaya and the Philippines. It may be variable
but there is only one species, the Flora of China says
firmly (writing before the DNA analysis, it calls the plant Belamcanda). The knobby rhizome has long
been valued in Chinese medicine for its antiseptic properties. Our plants are from garden seed.
Height 60 - 100 cm (24-36"). Zone 6.
Rhizome. Fall shipping only. $6.00
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Photographs © Paige Woodward

Photograph © Pat Woodward

Photograph by Brother
Alfred Brousseau, © St. Mary's College of California
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Iris douglasiana Herbert.
Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series Californicae. Douglas's iris. This is one
of the easiest Pacific Coast Iris species to grow; it tolerates a wide
range of site conditions. The flowers vary in color from white to deep
blue, but always have darker
veins and some yellow at the arch of the falls. The
stems are usually branched. The dark green, basal leaves are usually shiny but sometimes
not. Native to
coastal, grassy slopes at low elevations in Oregon and California, this
species forms majestic clumps.
Our plants descend from wild seed collected near Davenport, California by
Karen Hinsen. Height to 50 cm (20"). Zone 6. Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1994.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $8.00
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Iris
foetidissima L 'Citrina' .
Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series
Foetidissimae. Received from the British plantsman Sir Cedric Morris of
Benton End as the "Chinese form" of the species. The greatest
attraction of this plant is its decorative, lacquer-red seeds, which
remain attached to the open capsules for months. But in this form the
large flowers are also intriguing. Canary-yellow, veined and
streaked with mauve,
they bloom between the tall, fanlike leaves in June-July.
This good garden plant thrives in many conditions and tolerates dry shade.
Height of leaves: 60-80 cm (24-32").
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $10.00
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Photographs © Paige
Woodward |
Iris
hartwegii Baker. Rainbow iris.
Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series Californicae.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $9.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris histrio
H.G.L.
Reichenbach var.
aintabensis (G.P. Baker) B. Mathew. Subgenus
Hermodactyloides.
Diminutive and vigorous. Slate-blue flowers bloom in February-March,
the falls sprinkled with white and blue, the crest golden. Native to a
small area around Gaziantep (formerly Aintab) in S Turkey. Our plants
descend from bulbs collected there ca. 1930 by the American Mission.
Height 6-9 cm (2.5-3.5"). Hardy.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $6.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris
histrioides
(G.F. Wilson) S. Arnott var. major Grey. Subgenus
Hermodactyloides section Hermodactyloides. This is a reintroduction of a
favorite "reticulata" iris after the previous stock was weakened
by ink-spot disease. The flowers of this healthy stock are large, about 10
cm (4") wide, with standards and falls a deep gentian blue that is
even deeper at the apex of the fall. The golden crests are surrounded by
white marks. The foliage is compact, very short at flowering time in February-March.
Height of flowers 10-12 cm (4-5").
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $10.00
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Photograph © Paige
Woodward |
Iris hoogiana Dykes.
Subgenus Iris, Section Regelia. The large, fragrant flowers (2-3 per
stem), are lavender-blue with a yellow beard. They bloom in May-June
amid wide, purple-stained
leaves. Produces long stolons. Native to the Pamir
Alai of Tajikistan. Our plants descend from rhizomes collected there by
Paul Graeber in 1913. Height 40-60 cm (16-24"). Hardy.
Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1994.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $4.50
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris hoogiana
Dykes forma purpurea. A deep purple clone selected by the Dutch
firm of Van Tubergen.
Other details as in the preceding item.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $4.50
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Photograph © Pat Woodward

Photograph © Paige Woodward
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Iris innominata Henderson.
Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series Californicae. Golden iris. Small and choice.
Flowers that are typically golden yellow to orange (but may be
purple-blue, maroon, buff or cream) open in May-June.
The leaves are very narrow, shiny, and evergreen, their bases stained red
to purple. This species is clump-forming. Native to S Oregon and N
California, it is adapted
to open meadows and forest slopes, sunny or lightly shaded, and very well
drained but moist soil. Our plants
descend from
wild seed collected at many sites in Oregon. Height to 20 cm (8"). Zone 6.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only).
$6.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
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Iris korolkowii
Regel. Subgenus Iris, Section Regelia. This is one of our favorites. Flowers of variable color bloom in May. They are typically pale mauve-grey
with a dark central beard, darker veins and a dark purple-brown signal
near the base of the tepals. Native to the mountains of Central Asia from NE Aghanistan to the Tien
Shan and Pamir Alai. Named for N.J. Korolkov who collected in Central Asia
in the 1870s. Our rhizomes are grown by the Lithuanian nurseryman Leonid
Bondarenko. Height to 45 cm (18"). Very hardy.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only).
$22.00
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Photographs © Pat Woodward
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Iris laevigata F. E.
L. von Fischer. Rabbit-ear iris. Yanzihua (China). Kakitsubata (Japan).
Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series Laevigatae. Flowers that are
blue to mauve to white, often with white or yellow
central markings, bloom in May-July, depending on altitude. This is an
elegant and reliable plant for
shorelines and shallow ponds. Native to Russia, China,
Korea and Japan. Our plants are from wild and garden seed from both China and
Japan. Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1993.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $4.50
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Photographs by Brother
Alfred Brousseau, © St. Mary's College of California
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Iris macrosiphon Torrey.
Ground iris, Bowl-tubed iris. Subgenus Limniris,
Section Limniris, Series Californicae. Flowers that may be white to
purple or yellow bloom in April-June. The sepals are pale in the centre
and marked with dark veins. The perianth tube is very long (to 8 cm /
3") and bowl-shaped at the top. Native to sunny meadows, hills and verges in
N California. Our plants are from several collections of wild
seeds. Height to 25 cm (10"). Zone 6.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $6.50
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Photographs © Paige
Woodward
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Iris magnifica Vvedensky
'Agalik'. Subgenus Scorpiris. This is a vigorous Juno that blooms
in April-May, a beauty in both flower and
foliage that does well in the open garden. The flowers shade from
lavender-blue to white, with tangerine crests. This species
is adapted to water-receiving
subalpine slopes. Our plants
descend from bulbs collected by Jánis Rukšáns
in the Serawschan Range of Uzbekistan in 1977. We grow them in road mulch, because we get a lot of
rain. We are told, however, that 'Agalik' also does well in loam.
Divide it when the clumps get crowded. Award of Garden Merit
(Royal Horticultural Society) 1994. Height 40-60 cm (16-24"). Hardy.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $11.00
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Photographs © Pat Woodward
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Iris missouriensis Nuttall. Western blue flag.
Subgenus Limniris,
Section Limniris, Series Longipetalae. Flowers pale to deep blue (rarely white)
with purple-blue veins. Usually branched. Leaves stout and grasslike.
Adapted to wet catch-basins in low-rainfall sagebrush and yellow-pine
country. We keep its feet damp all year, and it thrives. Blooms May-June. Native east of
the Cascade Range, from British Columbia to California and the Dakotas.
Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1994. Height to 60 cm (24"). Zone 4.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $6.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris
orchioides
Carričre true species,
Deep Yellow form. Subgenus
Scorpiris. This is a dwarf Juno for the glasshouse. The April flowers,
much deeper yellow than in other forms, have falls with wide, 2-cm (1") wings
on the hafts and bright yellow crests. The stem is concealed by the
channeled leaves until flowering ends. Our photograph shows a more
typical, pale form. Please make the yellow much more intense in your
mind's eye. Native to the mountains of Central Asia. Our plants descend from stock
collected in Kyrgyzstan. Height at flowering 15-20 cm (6-8"). Dry
summer.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $20.00
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Photograph © Ken Walker
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Iris
purdyi Eastwood. Purdy's
iris. Redwood iris. Subgenus
Limniris,
Section Limniris, Series Californicae. This small beauty was common when
it was discovered by the digging plantsman Carl Purdy; now it is
endangered. Spreading, fairly flat flowers of cream flushed lavender, with
pink- or lavender-dotted veins, open in May-July. The flattened.
red-stained stem is almost completely sheathed in short, reddish bracts.
The evergreen leaves, variably slender to 1.5 cm (3/4") wide, are
shiny dark green above, glaucous below, and stained red or pink at the
base. Native to N California's ancient stands of redwood (Sequoia
sempervirens). Logging and development have enabled other iris species
to move in and cross with it, swamping its genes. Height about 12.5 cm
(5"). Zone 7, perhaps colder.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $9.00
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Photograph © Pat Woodward
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Iris sanguinea J. W.
Hornemann
ex Donn. Subgenus Limniris, Section Limniris, Series Sibericae.
Rabbit-ear
Iris; Xisun (Chinese). Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1994.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $4.50
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Iris setosa
Pallas ex Link. Northern flag, dwarf form. Subgenus
Limniris, Section
Limniris, Series Tripetalae. This is the form sometimes called var. arctica. We grew it from wild seed collected
in Alaska. Everyone who sees it in our rock garden wants it. We have only a few divisions to
offer each year. Height 15 cm (6").
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $9.00
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Photographs © Pat Woodward |
Iris setosa
Pallas ex Link. Subgenus Limniris, Section
Limniris, Series Tripetalae. Northern flag. Shan yuan wei (Chinese). Award of Garden Merit (Royal
Horticultural Society) 1994.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $4.50
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Photographs © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris sintenisii
Janka. Subgenus Limniris, Section
Limniris, Series Spuriae.
Violet-blue flowers with a metallic cast,
5-6 cm (2.5") across, bloom in June-July. This beautiful
clump-forming Spuria is named for Paul Sintenis
(1847-1907), who collected plants throughout Eurasia. Native to the
mountains of southern Italy, the Balkans, SW Russia and Turkey. Our
rhizomes descend from material collected by staff of the Copenhagen
Botanical Garden in Greece, on Mt. Smolikas in Ioannina province. Award of Garden Merit (Royal Horticultural
Society) 1994. The linear leaves are only 2-5 mm wide and overtop the
flowers. Height to 30 cm (12"). Zone 6.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $10.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris stolonifera
Maximowicz.
'Zwanenburg
Beauty'.
Subgenus Iris, Section Regelia.
This May-flowering heritage iris was selected at the renowned Van Tubergen
nursery in Holland. The standards are bluish-white with bronze edges and veins. The falls are
lilac shading to white in the centre, again with
bronze veins; the beard is cream-white. Height 30-40 cm
(12-16"). Bulb (Fall shipping only).
$13.00
If you like this plant, you will probably
like our regeliocyclus
hybrids.
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Photograph © Pat Woodward
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Iris tectorum
Maximowicz. Roof iris. 鸢尾
Yuan wei
(Chinese). Subgenus Limniris, Section Lophiris. The
scimitar-shaped leaves make a beautiful groundcover on a
slope. Rhizome (Fall shipping only).
$4.50
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Photograph © Pat Woodward
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Iris tenax
Douglas ex Lindley. Cascade iris, Oregon iris, cream and gold form. Subgenus
Limniris,
Section Limniris, Series Californicae. This
color form looks very like var. klamathensis.
Not available this
season.
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
Photograph © Pat Woodward
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Iris tenax
Douglas ex Lindley. Cascade iris, Oregon iris, mixed
blue forms. Subgenus
Limniris,
Section Limniris, Series Californicae.
Our plants are raised from wild seed from various sites in Oregon. We
no longer segregate paler and darker forms of blue and purple. All are
beautiful.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $6.00
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
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Iris
tenuis S. Watson. Clackamas Iris. Subgenus
Limniris,
Section Lophiris [Evansia irises]. White or blue flowers with golden
crests bloom in May. This is the only crested iris species in W North
America. With its fans of wide leaves, it looks like a tall Iris
cristata, except that its crests are flatter. It is native to
cool duff in the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests
of Clackamas
County, Oregon, on the border with Washington State. Our plants, all
white-flowered, are from
wild seed. Though fairly shade-tolerant, this iris needs at least part-day
sun to bloom. Height to 25 cm (10"). Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Rhizome (Fall shipping only). $10.00
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Photograph by Brother
Alfred Brousseau, © St. Mary's College of California |
Iris
tenuissima Dykes.
Shasta iris, Long-tubed iris. Subgenus
Limniris,
Section Limniris, Series Californicae. Cream flowers with purple or
red-brown veins, the petals narrow and the style crests long and reflexed,
bloom in June-July. The perianth tube is long, rises from closed bracts
and suddenly widens near the top. The evergreen leaves are narrow, grey-green,
and often pink or red at the base. Native to dry, sunny woods in N
California. Our plants are from exchange seeds. Height to 25 cm
(10"), though much shorter plants are common. Zone 6.
Not available this season.
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Iris vicaria Vvedensky.
Subgenus Scorpiris. Up to nine flowers, white with a yellow crest and
falls of the tenderest possible blue, are carried in the leaf axils
and bloom in April-May. Native to the Pamir
Alai, where spring thaw provides the year's main water, this plant is
nonetheless growable outdoors where we are, in rainy Zone 6.
Our stock descends from bulbs collected in 1982 on the upper Varzob River
in Tajikistan. Height 30-40 cm (12-16").
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $14.00
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Iris warleyensis Foster.
Subgenus
Scorpiris. A most elegant Juno. The April flowers are
summer-evening blue with a white margin on the blade of the falls and a
white crest edged in yellow. The blades curve down. The standards are deflexed,
pale blue with a night-blue band in the centre. The leaves have a white
margin. This beauty is named, like Iris willmottiana,
to honor the English plantswoman Ellen Willmott (1858-1934), who made famous
gardens in France, in Italy, and at
Warley Place in Essex. Iris warleyensis is native to the Pamir Alai of Central Asia. Our plants descend from
bulbs collected in the Aman-Kutan mountains S of Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
Height 25-45 cm (10-18"). Hardy.
Not available this
season.
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Photograph © |
Iris
warleyensis x bucharica, bronze-flowered. Subgenus
Scorpiris. So new it doesn't have a name, this is a cross of the
same parents that produced 'Warlsind'.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $20.00
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Photograph © Pat Woodward
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Iris
x 'Warlsind'. Subgenus
Scorpiris.
This famous Juno is a cross between Iris warleyensis and I. bucharica.
It has lost none of its charm since it was raised by the Dutch nurseryman
Thomas M. Hoog a century ago. The standards are pearl streaked with milk-blue. The
coarser falls have bright yellow lozenges tipped with chocolate brown. Height
24-35 cm (10-14"). Hardy.
Not available this season, but we have a
new, intriguing example of the same cross here.
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
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Iris
willmottiana
Foster. Subgenus
Scorpiris. Another of the 60 or so plants named for Ellen
Willmott, this Juno grows wild in the stony foothills of the Pamir
Alai. Up to 6 large, exquisitely marked blue flowers bloom amid the
compact foliage in May. Height to 20
cm (8"). Our plants are raised from seed from a few plants collected
in Kazakhstan, on a plateau between the Bugun and Sasi-Kazan valleys in
the Karatau range. This plant is very hardy, but most of us will grow it best in a glasshouse or
a cold frame.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $32.00
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
Photograph © Missouri
Botanical Garden |
Iris
winogradowii Fomin. Section Reticulatae. Tiny,
choice and growable: What more can we ask? Low prices, agreed; but cheap
reticulatas are too often in failing health. The flowers of
this beauty, pale primrose-yellow with gold-dust freckles and narrow
orange crests to the falls, bloom in mid-spring. Our plants descend from
stock collected in the subalpine on Mount Lomtismta, the "Mountain of
Bears," in the Republic of Georgia, where this Iris grows in
damp meadows and in pockets of humus among rocks. It is difficult to grow in a pot.
In gardens it prefers
humus-rich, porous soil in cool shade and does best if replanted each year
after a fairly dry summer. Once
considered near extinction, Iris winogradowii appears to be on the road to recovery.
Height. 5-8 cm (2-3"). Zone 5, perhaps colder.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $32.00
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Photograph © Jim Almond
Photograph © |
Iris
x ‘Sunny Side Up’. This hybrid
of I.
magnifica and I.
bucharica was found in the garden of the Irisarian's Irisarian, Brian Mathew, who gave it to
Kew, which judiciously shared it with a few connoisseurs, one of whom
shared it with us. We thank Jim Almond, proprietor of Alpines
for the Enthusiast, for permission to use his photograph. (No, Jim is
not our source.) Like both of its
parents, this cross is floriferous, vigorous and happy outdoors. From magnifica
it has inherited resistance to flopping in bad weather. The gold and
white of its flowers comes from both parents, and does them proud. Height
to 50
cm (20"). Zone 6, probably colder.
Bulb (Fall shipping only). $30.00
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IRIS
RESOURCES These references stand
out:
Because they summarize information from other sources, these
websites are also useful:
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This page was
updated
May 12, 2008.
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