Iris

We are pleased to be the first to introduce this excellent Sibirica Iris to North America. We were visiting John Grimshaw, plantsman extraordinaire and Director of the Yorkshire Arboretum, and walking about his home garden when he asked if we would like a bit of an Iris he had named with lovely scrambled egg flowers of yellow and cream. We said yes, of course because while we might be comparatively brutish colonists, we ain't without a certain native wit. Very floriferous on a shorter plant with flowers well-displayed. When Cotswold Garden Plants first introduced this in the UK in 2011, John mused on his blog about how nice it would be to receive a voluntary royalty which he could use to help fund the educational needs of a Maasai child he is sponsoring. School doesn't get less expensive as you get older so we are going to give $5 from each plant sold back to John.

We collected this in 1997 on the Tibetan Plateau near Zhongdian in an area of Tibetan open range. The early October withered, deciduous leaves and dried seed pods shrieked Iris! Eventual flowers confirmed the species, first described in 1995. Thin leaves and basal gorgeous flowers. Young plants.

Found growing along coastal Maine and up the eastern Canadian seaboard, this was known as the dwarf form of I. setosa but is now regarded as a distinct species. Favoring moist places but adapting very well to average garden conditions, this is best described in the most rigorous of botanical terms as "Cute". Very hardy.

One of the darkest of the cristata selections, the violet-blue petals are made to appear even darker by the little thumbprint of yellow and white at their bases. A small but mighty little woodland creeper which would revel in bright shade or morning sun. The thin rhizomes trundle along on the surface and are plenty hardy so don't bury them in mulch!

Selected from Darrell Probst's collection in South Korea, this puts on a show being especially free with flaunting its floral wares. Yellow flowers in such quantity over the low grassy foliage in May that on a cool day it seems like you could warm your hands on them. A rewarding semi-evergreen small patch in part sun to bright shade.

Seed collected at 3200 meters in Sichuan in an open grazed small meadow area adjoining low scrub. Tightly clumping, deciduous and allied to Iris japonica but is something totally new. Small blue flowers are laddered down the stems in the leaf axils. This has baffled some of the top authorities on Chinese Iris both here in the US and in the UK which quite honestly makes us very happy. Nothing like introducing a species nova to quicken the pulse! We expect this to be hardier than the zone 6 we are giving it but are being our usual conservative selves until we learn differently from those of you who will try this in colder zones.

Eyes that look like these would be a little more concerning than dazzling but on an iris they are well worth a futile staring contest. This selection of I. unguicularis has an extended area of white and purple striping at the base of the petals that provides a stunning contrast that is sure to draw the eye, or to the more imaginative among us conjure images of eyes you might see at a really wild music festival.

It's a well-known fact of life that miniature means cute. And this widdle-bitty Iris hits all the same dopamine and oxytocin receptors longing for the long forgotten taste of that sweet sweet brain candy we shoveled in so naively as children. Nurseryman Darrell Probst clearly has an eye for the adorable, as this unique selection of an already extremely rare and choice iris sports pale flowers of only about 1.5" amidst fine grassy evergreen foliage.

A floriferous and perhaps hardier selection with a bit larger flowers than usual by the late Don Jacobs of Eco-Gardens in Georgia. Don was one of the first nurserymen to get into China in 1983 as the bamboo curtain was lifting. It is hard not to like the soft lavender-blue flowers with darker spotting around the white band surrounding the yellow thumbprint. Light shade.

Primo little collector's Iris with charming white flowers - smaller than the more frequently encountered 'Alba' - over dense mounds of fine-bladed foliage. It's graceful appearance hides a tough core and an implacable perseverance that has kept it in our collection for over two decades. A Japanese deciduous species preferring light shade or part sun. This is a good one.

This is a fine form of the Algerian Iris that we got from our bud, Sean Hogan. This has larger flowers than typical being 3-4 inches across and of a good blue-lavender with a narrow strip of yellow on the falls which is feathered on each side by white. A winter bloomer which is critical here in the Northwest.

Blackberry Lily. Our collection of this extremely widespread Asian species which not only has attractive deep orange flowers that are overlaid in a plethora of red spots but also the seed is curiously attractive looking for all the world like a large blackberry. This has wide application in traditional Chinese medicine and our collection is likely an escapee from the local mountain village.

Roof Iris. These are seed-grown from our plant from an Eric Hammond collection in China. This species actually does grow on thatched roofs in Japan and China and is quite easily grown in the garden Large, 5-6 inch lilac-blue flowers are very nice on stems to perhaps 18" tall. Happy in zones 4-9, this is easy but watch for slugs on the new growth as these might attest.

This clone of this fabulous Iris introduced by Darrell Probst is one of our favorite plants of all time. Very fine grassy foliage making a large lax dense mound that is festooned with small white jewels of flowers. It won't happen overnight, but give this a few years and you will have some serious bragging rights. Not that we ever concern ourselves with things like that...

Dark-flowered form from a wild collection in Turkey. The typical form cultivated in the Northwest is a soft blue lavender but this is a rich blue purple with falls marked at the base with prominent white feathers around a peninsula of yellow. Closely allied to Iris unguicularis, this has wider more substantial foliage and flowers later - usually in March here. Special indeed!

This is a choice little dwarf species from China of which we never have enough. Perfect lavender-blue flowers just a few inches high over densly clumping short foliage. This is one tough baby Iris as Sue brought this out from her garden in northern Vermont. Deciduous.

This hybrid of I. wattii and I. japonica originates from California plantsman Jimmy Giridlian and comes to us via Russell Graham Purveyor of Plants. Forms a slowly spreading clump of 2' arching evergreen leaves that lift aloft the pale flowers that perhaps provided inspiration for the name, white banners with golden throats and pale purple central petaloids give an air of royalty and purity that suggest a monthly income far above nada. A highly choice Iris that we are glad to have more than nada of, and are happy that you too will be able to remedy any nada quantities of 'Nada' currently listed in your surely well curated garden inventory.

Among our thousands of plant accessions, tall bearded iris are represented by just a single plant - Iris 'Kent Pride'. This outlier in our collections strategy is sited in one of the choicest spots in the dry garden because it is a stunner. Rich chestnut-red standards with the same overlaid on yellow around a white blaze on the falls - so good! An enduring gift to us from one of the PNW's best plant minds, Jim Fox, who acquired this at Beth Chatto's nursery in England and which we finally have enough to spare a few. It will be some years before we offer it again so dither not. Fresh divisions potted in gallons.

An interesting version of this valuable evergreen Iris which has light lemon flowers instead of the typical uninspiring dull lavender mauve. The flowers are really just a teaser for the main show which is the big seed pods spitting open in late summer and fall showing brilliant red -orange seeds. Excellent evergreen foliage.

Rich purple flowers of a color more suited to the dreams of the Pope than the Devil, unless of course the Devil is dreaming of someday wearing those rich purple Pope-robes, in which case it is appropriately named. Just speculation. Great color anyway.