Iris cristata and small woodland Iris

Today was my annual field trip to Garden Vision Epimediums "open nursery weekend"; a fine spring day.  Not only are there epimediums, but also some nice woodland Iris.  The photos show a booty box of newly purchased treasures.  The biggest surprise was I. cristata 'Montrose White', a 2010 Joe Pye Weed's Garden 2010 introduction. The beautiful flowers are really large, surprisingly so, 3" diameter.  It is said to be a robust grower.

One that I lost due to mole/vole tunneling is I. cristata 'Powder Blue Giant', with 3-1/2" light blue flowers, happy to get it back for a mere $6.

Two others I bought were I. cristata 'Little Jay', a dwarf deep blue selection, and I. verna 'Cleo Chapel Road', a 2012 Joe Pye Weed's Garden introduction, a colorful form collected bt Darrell Probst near Cleo Chapel Road, South Carolina.

cohan wrote:

Nice batch of plants- sounds like a great event to attend :) What are the pink flowers- first glance I was thinking Phalaenopsis (tropical orchids), which of course can't be...lol

The pink flowered plant is Phlox stolonifera 'Wister Pink'.  All of these carpeting woodland phlox are wonderful garden plants, easy and indestructable, but as the name implies (stolonifera) it's a spreader, and must be given room to spread.  There are many many named cultivars of this Eastern USA species.  Here's a photo showing the plant and the creeping stoloniferous runners.

I'll have to catch up with some more Iris that have bloomed, but I'll jump ahead with one I found in bloom tonight.  When I get home in waning light, I do my "garden walkabout" and I find new things in flowers.  Here's Iris verna 'Brumback Blue', a wonderful dwarf woodland species, this one selected for its bright color.  I'm so pleased to see the first flowers open.

RickR wrote:

Iris gracilipes is another nice little one.  I grow the white form:

Rick, good portraits, the white form of gracilipes is such a beauty. I have forms of I. gracilipes growing among so many other things that I can't quite adequately capture the delicate graceful growth of the plant, with such fine stems arching upwards to present the flowers.  None of mine have opened their buds yet, and I fear I shall miss them when I'm traveling all of the next week.

I need to get the regular lavender and white form, what I'm growing is the dwarf white "Buko form", some seedlings from it that grow a little taller, and the named selection from Garden Vision Epimediums named I. gracilipes 'Cobblewood Charm', an intermediate size form with lavender flowers.  Here is a photo of my plant budded, with Phlox 'Chattahoochee' in the backgrown, the beautiful phlox in full bloom for a month now, one of the very best woodland phlox IF it likes your garden.

Iris verna 'Brumback Blue' opened some more flowers, looking colorful catching sunlight.

RickR wrote:

More pics of Iris minutoaurea I dug up in my files:

And from today, Iris lacutris at 4-5 inches high:

Rick, excellent study portraits of Iris minutoaurea, the inner petals just like tiny boat oars or paddles.  I'm reminded by your photos of the lovely I. lacustris, this is another species that I lost over the last several years, planted in the wrong place and succumbing to drought; must get it back, it is such a sweet little species. 

Back from a week of training in Dallas Texas for my job, I noticed my newly purchased Iris cristata 'Montrose White' most leaf fans had collapsed and detach at the slightest touch. There were a few small slugs around the pot, which I disposed of, I suspected they were the culprit.  Overnight, the rest of the leaves were damaged and fell off, I think more is going on.  I washed all soil off, looking for view weevil larvae or adults, found none, but directly below where I was working I found a brown marmorated stink bug (an invasive here) that may have been the source of damage.

The roots are still looking healthy, so I will replant this someplace and hope that the now naked rhizome rejuvenates.

Iris gracilipes 'Cobblewood Charm' is in full bloom, floriferous and elegant.  This introduction by Darrell Probst is a hybrid between the dwarf white form known as "Buko" and regular I. gracilipes, this selection inheriting some of the compact size from "Buko".  The flowers are beautifully marked.

Collected seed today on 5 varieties of Iris cristata plus 1 pod each on two varieties of Iris verna.  Given that the Iris patches flowered well this spring, it is surprising that so little seed was set.  Last week I harvested 1 pod on I. koreana and about 6 pods on I. odaesanensis.  Thus far I have had limited success growing these woodland Iris from seed, odaesanensis yielding best germination, but that said, germination is generally very low with all of them.

So, I must experiment with different sowing techniques, to see if I can improve germination rates.  All of my meager harvest will be sown (sorry, not enough seed to share this year).  If anyone has suggestions for sowing techniques with woodland Iris, I would be grateful to hear.

Iris cristata stems and pods collected in plastic bags, where they will be allowed to open on their own.
Checking a couple sample pods, they seemed ready to harvest.

cohan wrote:

Mark, have you read the threads on SRGC about surgery on iris seeds? Folks were doing complicated things to cut through seedcoats etc..

No, I haven't seen those threads.  Can you point me in the right direction with a URL or two?

Earlier I posted about the surprising quick germination of Iris odaesanensis this year; never before did it germinate in mere weeks after sowing, normally waiting until the following spring to germinate. Originally showing 18 seedlings, the quantity has now doubled to about 36 seedlings.  Today I checked a small pot of Iris koreana (despite heavy flowering, only harvested one viable seed pod with 6 seeds inside), and 3 of the 6 seeds germinated, again just a few weeks after sowing.  

I believe I now know the recipe for speedy germination.
1.  sow seed immediately when harvested, in a good humusy soil.
2.  cover seed lightly with soil and top-dress with thin layer of decomposed pine bark mulch.
3.  place seed pots outside in a shady location.
4.  expose pots to 2"-3" of torrential rainfall each night for 3 weeks, followed each day by HOT HOT steamy weather ;)

Today I planted out 41 seedlings of Iris odaesanensis; I was surprised to see how well developed the roots were.

I was surprised to see just how developed the roots were after a mere 5 weeks from germination, but figured we still have September and October for them to keep growing and become established.  Never had seed of I. odaesanensis and koreana germinate in summer so soon after sowing, so I thought "what the heck", might as well experiment and plant them out.  I also planted out the small pot of I. koreana that germinated (4 out of 6 seeds came up).  I have plenty of each species, so if they don't make it, it'll be a lesson learned.

The growth of these species is different than I. cristata, having a thick "turf-like" habit, maybe they'll become established and overwinter more easily than cristata. 

I've never tried moving or dividing I. cristata in late summer or autumn, was thinking about moving some that are encroaching on some Trillium seedlings, but after your story, think I'll hold off until spring.

I'm pleased to report that all of the seedlings of Iris odaesanensis and I. koreana that germinated in just a couple weeks after sowing last summer, and planted out in the garden in September, are alive and well, and sprouting into strong new growth.  Shown here are just some of Iris odaesanensis seedling plants.

Iris cristata forms are on the move, sprouting quickly.  In fact, some are encroaching a sown-in-place bed of Trillium pusillum var. alabamicum, so I will remove the advancing rhizomes and pot them up for next week's NARGS plant auction.

The mat of I. cristata 'Edgar Anderson' also looks like it will need to be curbed this year, more material for a plant sale. In this photo taken recently, you'll get a good idea about how to grow this species; it is with rhizomes *above* the soil, it will root where it wants to, but the rhizomes are bone hardy even though fully exposed.

This is a dwarf seedling selection of Iris cristata, never bloomed in the 4 years I've had it, but I'm so anxious to see what the flowers are like.  The foliage is about 1/3rd-1/4th the size of normal Iris cristata.  Also, the rhizomes branch much more frequently. I will follow up with a photo if it blooms.

Last year seed formation on Iris cristata was sparse, so the little I was able to gather was sown in a flat from "mixed" cultivars. My experience growing these from seed is hit or miss, sometimes decent germination, other times none at all. I noticed a couple days ago, seedlings are showing, hard to tell, but about 25 seedlings so far.

Ron, I used a decomposed bark mulch as a seed cover (mulch), many woodlanders seem to respond well to the treatment. I like using peat flats which sit on the bare ground, because moisture tends to be more even with these porous flats.  The flats are sown and set out in summer after seed is harvested; during the summer the flats are in shade and sprinkled with water fairly regularly, they do dry out but never become totally parched. In autumn and winter they fend for themselves. In spring if there's a long expanse of dry weather (as there is now) then I resume watering.

And quite suddenly, Iris odaesanensis is in flower, with many more buds coming.  This colony represents self-sown seedlings gathered up and planted together, along with my own deliberate seed-grown plants, the first year in many where it has really decided to flower well.

The flowers on I. odaesanensis seem to go over fairly quickly, but I noticed if one plants patches here and there in the garden, with micro-climates, the bloom time is somewhat staggered, so I have a couple patches just coming into bloom, while this big patch is fading.

On the other hand, Iris koreana is flowering lustily, here's a photo taken 2 days ago, where this large patch seems to bloom on one side of the mat and moves to flowering on the other side.  Even though it rained today, the patch is now in full bloom covering the entire foliage mat, but didn't catch a photo.  I had planted a form of Iris cristata right next to it (foliage visible in upper right of I. koreana leaves), in hope of promiscuous garden activity ;)   It's great having this species in a woodland setting to bring bright yellow into the woodland Iris spectrum.

Rick, from your story I take it that your seedlings of I. koreana have not bloomed? My plant, which flowers magnificently every year, previously never flowered (not a single flower) in a different part of the garden, just moving it seemed to do the trick.  The same with Iris odaesanensis, I'm now spotting them around in various places, and in some (too dry) places they rarely flower or even die out, but in other spots (like in the photos I recently showed), they flower very well indeed, in other spots they flower sporadically.  Not sure what specifically they want.

Anticipation!  Judging from the quantity of buds on various Iris cristata forms, it will be a banner year for them.  Two views of the largest form, I. cristata 'Edgard Anderson', on the left taken in rain on 05-09-2013, and on the right taken today 05-10-2013.

I was comparing a couple new recent additions to my garden, the first was Iris cristata 'Powder Blue Giant', added last year (2012).  I'm not overly crazy about it, the stems are so long and flopping that the flowers hang down into the dirt.  In this photo, I had propped up the front flower so that it could be seen.

Three views below of a newly acquired Iris cristata 'Eco Orchid Giant', introduced by Don Jacobs in 1992. It looks similar to 'Powder Blue Giant'. The flowers on Eco Orchid Giant are beautiful indeed, and scented like roses (myself and a friend agree). It seems that these large-flowered types have a hard time holding up their flowers, although this one seems sturdier than Powder Blue Giant.

By the way, I bought this delightful Iris from NARGS forumist Amy Olmstead (thanks Amy!), I happened to run into her at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston MA, with a table of fine plants for sale, a few weeks back during the American Primrose Society show.  Great running into you Amy.

Iris cristata 'Eco Orchid Giant':