One of the easiest perennial flowering plants to grow is the bearded iris, and it doesn’t hurt to also have one of the most beautiful flowers, with hundreds of varieties to choose from.
July and August are the prime months for organizing, planting, and dividing iris plants, although you can plant through September and still have enough root growth to make it through a zone 7 winter. Bearded Iris does not require cold winter hardening to bloom the following spring, but will still survive. That said, you can’t kill them!
Rainbows are not really bulbs, although most home gardeners think they are bulbs. They are the rhizome, or root plant and from the hardy roots and flowers hundreds of plants can be made. by simply digging up the roots after anthesis, the flower divides them into two or more plants.
They make a rainbow and produce hundreds of beautiful varieties, with attractive names that just beg you to buy them and watch them bloom. While you may still grow and purchase simple lilac and purple blue irises in our grandmother’s gardens, you will also find Iris labeled; Fresno Frolic, Monet’s Blue, Noble Honey, Lord of the Night or my new favorite, Mariposa Skies, a rough vision and ribbon in blue and white.
Rainbow flowers have six main flowers arranged with three growing stages signs called Up, and three hanging called Fall. On the shoulders there are shaggy hairs like threads called beards, hence the name bearded rainbow. Some are all one color, and this flower is one of a kind. But the colors have different fall colors, a mixture that wanders through the color spectrum or a true black flower.
My love for Iris started as a young as I watched my mother grow up in the sweeping fields. She was a gardener and a farmer, and people from far and wide began to buy field flowers and irises for their gardens. Late May and through June is the prime blooming season in Indiana for rainbows, a time we still look forward to every year. I am the only one tired of the bearded iris, because its flowering time was shorter! I would have all the seasons in my garden if I could!
And now we can! With new varieties reblooming on the market! And Mariposa Skies is kind of refreshing. I can’t wait to see my new flower beds this fall!
Planting and bearded iris bearded
Location: Choose an airy location that receives 6-8 hours of sunlight each day. Avoid midday sun in hot southern states.
Soil: Prepare your soil dig holes to 12 inches deep, add good compost or manure to the mix instead of green Add some sand if the clay soil is hard and make sure there is good drainage in rainy areas.
Plant: In a shallow hole, place the rhizomes, attached to the leaves, protruding upwards on a raised embankment inside the larger hole. Fill the hole with your loosened soil, with the rhizome level even with the soil or even slightly above the ground. Do not bury too much dirt around the trunk of the leaves.
Waing: Water in drought, otherwise there is no need. And I don’t even spend a lot of time drinking unless we’re really in drought conditions.
Mulch: In very cold regions and in very open plots, straw or leaf mulch is useful, although in my zone 7, Iris do not mulch. Be sure to remove any mulch in the spring, wipe off old plant debris in the fall.
Feritlize: Always mix in a light scattering of some spring or 6-10-10 fertilizer, and that until sunset, when I feed the same again before winter.
Here are some great areas to order your beautiful bearded Iris. Time to plant now!
American prairie:
White Flower Farm
Schreiners Gardens
Holland Bulb Farms
