Add splashy variety to your garden with bearded iris

This spring, I have to admit, I went a little berserk about bearded iris. The combination of the strikingly colored, complex blooms with silk, velvet or tissue-like textures and fuzzy beards, standing tall and formal in the spring landscape, is arresting. I look forward to it each year. Resilient and often oblivious to drought and neglect, they persevere and bloom profusely, come what may.

I used to see them purely as individual plants with flowers I liked. Each year I have new favorites. This year, I have looked more closely and noticed details I hadn’t paid attention to before.

With flower shape and construction for new varieties, the trend seems to be toward large, very full, ruffled blooms standards (the upper petals) and falls (the lower petals). The variations are almost endless, with colors ranging from the palest hues to brilliant ones, with many incredible and mesmerizing bi-colors, contrasting or complimentary colors, splashes and color tones, each more interesting and fun than the last.

Beards — or the anthers — can be in contrasting colors to the falls and standards. Old varieties have simpler, often smaller flowers with more open form, and the petals lack elaborate ruffles and flounces. Coloring is often quieter. Flower petals can have a translucent, delicate texture with falls that look like they will flutter in the wind.

Some of the heirloom varieties have distinctive scents. One very common iris has faded burgundy falls and lavender standards and smells distinctly of root beer, while others smell like vanilla. Many modern irises are not very fragrant, though iris nurseries do have categories labeled fragrant.

Perusing the landscape for irises

As I explored around town this spring, I really noticed the colors, patterns and textures of the irises I spotted. I even noticed how sun on the blooms transformed a deep-purple-almost-black iris into a glowing purple velvet. I loved the subtle shading of a white iris edged with lavender.

In another garden, a large clump of old irises with soft red falls and soft orange standards complemented a picnic table painted bright red. In an alley, a long line of neglected velvet purple and deep blue irises created a painting worthy of a museum.

Some were surprisingly fun, like an iris with orange standards and deep-purple-edged falls. Another had deep-violet falls and blue standards. A very subtle, unusually colored iris was one of the palest apricot-pink, with a bright-lavender beard.

At the annual local iris society sale last summer, I looked for the same shades of plum and deep violet I had seen in gardens and realized just how many shades there are of each. I also looked for irises in the same shade of bright, light blue my mother had in her garden, only to find many with washed-out colors and none matching what’s in my memory.

Irises with falls and standards of different colors and color combinations have taught me a lot about color in general and opened my eyes to tints, tones and shades I never would have imagined putting together, much less expected to find in a plant. Thinking about color is interesting with irises but also useful in garden design, flower arranging, fabric selection and even house paint.

It wasn’t just the colors and forms that were interesting. Spotting both old and new varieties of the same iris in gardens around town showed the popularity of each at different times. I saw the same iris varieties in several gardens in neighborhoods, making me wonder if these people were friends who shared plants with one another, brought together by a flower.

This year, I stopped to take photos of irises I thought were especially beautiful and, in the process, met many people I didn’t know before. Most invited me back to get an iris rhizome later in the season.

Bearded irises are hybridized Iris germanica. Irises were first grown in America in Virginia in the 1600s, but they weren’t grown popularly until the early 1900s. Now there are over 70,000 varieties.

Bearded irises grow from horizontally branching rhizomes that grow out laterally at or just below the soil surface. Rhizomes function as carbohydrate and water storage for the plant and grow roots and leaf buds.

Divide irises every three to five years. In late summer, replant rhizomes as soon as possible. Don’t plant them too deeply. The top of the rhizome should show.

An interesting website for historic irises is the Historic Iris Preservation Society, at historiciris.org. They have a gallery of photos of historic irises with details on the breeding and introduction date.

Kate Frey’s column appears every other week in Sonoma Home. Contact Kate at katebfrey@gmail.com, freygardens.com, Twitter @katebfrey.