Iris flowers can be as exotic looking as many orchids (OK the colour range may not be as wide in the red). Their presence adds excitment to a northern garden in spring. In fact, a northern garden without irises is like a beautiful piece of music with a big chunk of melodies missing from it part way through the growing season. Many 'expert' garden designers appear to exclude certain types of irises from their gardens presumably they may be considered a high maintenance plants such as the need for frequent divisions, and the need to stake the flower stems in some etc. Looking at the brighter side, irises are very hardy, easy to grow , readily establish, and reward the gardeners with exotic looking flowers in a relatively short time. Unless I cannot afford the time, I would really hate to have 'missing melodies' in my garden. Many modern irises do not require extensive staking effort. If you have lots of irises that need frequent division, it is indeed annoying, but they only need to be done towards the end of summer when there is relatively fewer garden chores other than weeding.
We neglected iris after the initial attraction many years ago. Now that we have more time, we are slowly increasing the number of iris varieties in our garden. Unfortunately, in our haste to acquire new plants, we seem to mess up many of their iendtification, and sorting them is going to be tedious. I am still experimenting with how to use iris as a composition element in my garden. So far the results are not particularly satisfactory.
Since we currently only have a very small collection, I did not border to classify my bearded irises here in the standard way; simply as dwarf and taller. 2008 turned out to be an unusually bad year for bearded irises in our garden. Many did not bloom. It was also a record wet year, and some of our new irises perished.
Dwarf irises mostly bloom in early spring and are among the first flowering plants to arrive. Inspite of their short visit, they always make a lasting impression; enough for you to wait for them to come back next year.
This is the group that has the widest repertoire of varieties. More recently, there are more and more varieties introduced as rebloomers. However, in our area, not all of them are equally relaible in reblooming.
Siberian irises are always our favourites; both the leaves and flowers are highly ornamental. They are practically maintenance 'free' when given a location that suits them. The only problem we have is there are not enough varieties available in Canada to acquire. We are starting to ship some from the US, but the survival rate is poor and shipping cost is high.
We are new to iris ensata. Give us a few years.
Only two thing are infinite; the universe and human stupidity, and I am not sure of the former.
Albert Einstein
