Summary: A flower garden made up of only of iris are loved by iris fanciers but to most people prefer a flower garden plan with a combination of iris and other blooming perennials to enhance the beauty of the flower garden.
Question: Is it wrong to use a flower garden plan where we only plant iris to achieve the color in the garden? We love the look of iris so much. Donna, Terre Haute, Indiana
Answer: Donna, to the garden designer, iris is an invaluable flower. It has all the qualities of a fine perennial:
- Permanence
- Relative Freedom from Disease
- Infinite Variety of Size and Color
- Long Period of Bloom
- Good Foliage Throughout the Season
To the iris fancier, a garden consisting only of iris may be a delight but to most of us, a combination with other perennials of the same season of bloom enhances the beauty of the iris themselves.
Summer Edging
The wide variation in height in the different species of iris adapts them for use in both the large and the small garden and in the front and the back of the border. During early May, low Iris pumila or the less common Iris cristata or Iris gracilipes, used along the front edge of the perennial border, starts off the gardening season with a taste of great beauty to come. Alternated with blue polemonium, veronica or hardy white candytuft, they give a low sheet of bloom which is followed by good green foliage for the summer edging.
Succeeding these early iris in period of bloom and also in height are the intermediate iris. This class has been badly neglected for some years in its use. They usually bloom about the same time as the garden tulips and are excellent used in combination with them. The blue, yellow or white of the iris flowers reaches only slightly above the foliage and a little lower than most of the tulip blossoms. Just as their flowers are fading, the innumerable varieties of tall bearded iris come into their own. Many of them are too tall for the average small garden but diligent search online and in catalogs will reward you with beautiful colors from white to pink, taw yellows, golden yellows, pale blues, dark blues and purples and of heights from 2 to 4 feet.
Endless Possibilities
Subtle and interesting combinations can be evolved. Sometimes they may progress from white to pale yellow into the blues and purples at one end of the border, then on into the pinks at the other end. Or throughout the border yellow may be combined with blue, or cream with pink and dark red or dark purple with light blue. The possibilities are almost endless but it takes observation of the plants while they are actually in bloom to make sure which shades are best together. In general, the blended or multi-toned kinds are interesting at close range and for cutting or specimen purposes but seen at a distance and in a general garden picture they are likely to look a little muddy and less interesting than the primary colors.
Excellent foil for the iris are the green leaves of tall baptisia with the blue flowers coinciding with the last of the iris. The unfolding leaves and buds of peonies contrast well with the spiky leaves of iris. The earliest of the peonies, particularly the old-fashioned type and some of the singles, will often bloom with the last of the tall bearded irisÑa combination much to he desired. Painted daisies (Pyrethrum hyhridum) in the pink and rose tones are excellent with blue iris or cream colored ones. Occasionally pale rose shades of pyrethrum look well with some of the dark red iris varieties. Best of all perennials to accompany the iris is probably columbine. The colors blend perfectly with almost all of the iris and the delicacy of stem and flower makes iris look handsomer and bolder.
Iris is a flower for everyone’s garden whether chosen for accent plants as fine specimens or for sheets of bloom making up most of the May garden. Iris multiply almost too well for most of us and their versatility is likely to be the downfall of anyone who really studies the new iris offering.
