GARDENING : Mixing Tall With Short Is More Pleasing to the Iris
Is your garden all yin and no yang?
Soft, rounded forms please the eye, more so when they have something straight and spiky to work against for contrast. A successful garden benefits from the strong, vertical element of at least one crisp, sword-leafed plant.
A tall bearded iris can add that contrast.
And, in sunny Southern California, the plant is virtually evergreen.
Bearded irises have traditionally been purchased and planted as bare-root rhizomes in late summer, but most nurseries now also offer irises for sale in pots in early spring for immediate planting.
Jim Puckett of Blooming Fields Farm, a commercial iris grower in Riverside, believes bearded irises will soon enjoy a new era of popularity. At least he hopes so.
The only reason the tough, tolerant bearded iris disappeared in the first place, he says, is that many farmers who grew them sold off their properties to developers in the ‘50s, and the all-green landscaping that became popular in the ‘60s did not encourage others to take their places.
But things are changing.
“People want true gardens, not landscapes, these days,” says Cristin Fusano, horticulturist and assistant manager at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar. “They want herbs, vegetables, grapevines and cut flowers, and nurseries are responding.”
“I always include iris in the plans when people ask for cottage gardens,” she says. “Though the flowers are beautiful, I’d use iris even if they never bloomed. I think the foliage is wonderful.”
The upright soldierly presence of irises is a sure-fire counterbalance to the curved shapes in a garden, says Fusano.
Here’s how she uses the plants:
* Place several tall bearded irises in one color in a clump as a focal point in the middle of the border. “Three if you have a small garden, five if it’s larger,” she says.
* Place low-mounded plants in front of the iris, larger mounded plants behind it, and airy broom-like plants at the back. For the front of the border, Fusano suggests herbs like golden or lime thyme, golden sage, and Dittany of Crete (an oregano), true geraniums (also known as cranesbill) such as the popular ‘Johnson’s Blue,’ or ground morning glory (Convolvulus mauritanicus).
“All of these have similar cultural requirements as iris,” says Fusano. “They don’t like rich soil, and they don’t need frequent watering.”
Pittosporum crassifolium is a good companion for the mid- ground, she suggests, and Erica (heath), pink breath of heaven, or Westringia, especially ‘Wynabie Gem,’ are nice background plants.
Warren Gnas, color specialist at Amling’s Newport Nursery likes bearded irises in borders, too. Following are some of his favorite companions:
For the front, he suggests, gray or green santolina, snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum), Santa Barbara Daisy, Nierembergia (especially ‘Mont Blanc’), perennial blue flax ( Linum perenne ), or catmint ( Nepeta faassenii ).
“Anything that sort of floats over the rhizomes and doesn’t compete with them would be good,” says Gnas. “Mat forming ground covers are too aggressive.”
The perfect background shrubs, in his opinion, would be native wild lilacs. “Ceanothus are wonderful with iris,” Gnas says. The plant’s small, dark-green leaves and sky-colored flowers complement the blue, pink, and white iris his customers favor, he says.
Fusano reports similar customer preferences. Though irises come in a wide range of colors, including browns and near-blacks, and several patterns, including bitones and plicatas, these cultivars are most popular with iris collectors. Other gardeners, in her experience, prefer pure solid colors in traditional iris hues such as lavender-blue ‘Mary Frances,’ white ‘Cotton Carnival’ and pink ‘Beverly Sills,’ perhaps because they’re a better match for other spring-blooming pastels.
For those not fond of pastels, there are more strongly colored irises, such as bright yellow ‘Lemon Custard,’ deep purple ‘Dusky Challenger,’ or ‘All That Jazz,’ a yellow/burgundy bitone.
Iris enthusiast Jennie Hopson combines the strongly colored varieties with traditional Southern California landscaping plants with equally vivid colors.
The San Clemente Garden Club member (and with husband, Russell, a former iris specialty nursery owner) recommends the following:
For the very front of the border, she favors an edging of blue fescue. The glaucous color of this ornamental clumping grass is a nice repetition of the similarly-colored iris foliage, Hopson says.
Behind the fescue, try zonal geraniums, day lilies, succulents with large, fleshy leaves, and heavenly bamboo. Roses work, too, especially floribundas, she says.
Ideally, arching over all, says Hopson, would be the airy canopy of a flowering tree like crape myrtle or bottle brush to direct the eye upward.
The main thing to remember, she says, is to work for balance. “You need a few tall, sword-like plants like iris, softer, bushier plants, some things with great big leaves, and then some fine, needle-like foliage from grasses or conifers.”
Another idea from Hopson:
For a long, skinny border (paralleling a driveway, for instance), plant a “fence” of mixed irises along the back and low-growing perennials or annuals in front. If you wants lots of different colors in the edging, consider planting all blue iris, suggests Hopson.
“Blue accents anything that’s planted in front of it,” she says. “Then separate highly contrasting colors with patches of white.”
Commercial landscapers have begun experimenting with bearded irises instead of the usual “median strip” plants lately, too. The Hyatt Newporter, for instance, incorporated 14 varieties in a 10-by-60-foot “island” on its golf course. Kurt Luthy, landscape superintendent at the Hyatt, says he chose irises primarily because they were low-maintenance and drought-tolerant. (The bed they’re planted in is not irrigated, and the irises will get by with three good soakings this summer, he says.)
To get more than one season’s worth of color from the bed, Luthy selected reblooming varieties.
Where To See Bearded Iris
A number of iris growers open up their fields for display this month:
Blooming Fields Farm in Riverside is open every Sunday in April from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Take the Riverside (91) Freeway east to the Pierce off-ramp, turn left onto Pierce at the light, go 0.9 miles to Raley, turn right, and proceed through the gate.
Cal-Dixie Iris, at 14115 Pear St., Riverside, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from April 17 to May 30. Call (909) 657-3501 for directions to the farm.
Hamner’s Iris Garden in Perris will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily from now through May 30. The address is 960 N. Perris Blvd. Take the 215 Freeway south to Nuevo Road, proceed east to Perris Boulevard, and turn south at Perris.
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The Orange County Iris and Daylily Society will have members’ cut flowers on display during the Green Scene at the Fullerton Arboretum, 1900 Associated Road. Rhizomes and potted plants will also be offered for sale. Green Scene takes place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25.
Roger’s Gardens will have 75 varieties of cut iris on display from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 17 and 24. Roger’s is at 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar.
