Looking Up

Not sure if this was iris reticulata 'Harmony' or 'Pixie'

iris reticulata 'Purple Hill'

'Blue Hill' among species crocus
 

Anything I could write about iris reticulata would pale in comparison to their awesome beauty. So instead, here are a few images from the past few years.

 




For such a tiny flower, they have the biggest punch! A few days ago, I wrote that early spring bulbs are the punk rockers of the spring garden. Art school dropouts with dyed hair, ready to get into a fight over who is hardier, in the middle of a snowstorm.

 



About twenty-ish years ago, we planted our first hundred iris reticulata, courtesy of Van Engelen. Talk about enabling! When you have a hundred of anything, you start thinking bigger. After you've planted a hundred bulbs, you ask yourself... what if I had four hundred more? What could I do with a huge wave of purple moving through the garden?  

I should try to capture the wave of blue from atop a tall ladder or maybe a drone. It needs more irises. Hundreds more. Hah! This blog is brought to you courtesy of... oh wait. No sponsorship. Sigh.

 




A lot of what I was told about iris reticulata in the beginning has turned out to be only marginally true. They like sun. Sure, every spring bulb wants sun. They want it dry. Well, we plant into wet soggy clay and they dont pack up and leave... so I guess they must like it, right? Some of our oldest iris reticulata were planted into our heavy sod. 

I understand that in their native habitat of the gravely mountainsides of Turkey, The Caucasus, Northern Iraq, and Iran, they grow in dry hard stoney ground. Trying to find that around here is beyond impossible. Heck, we can't even keep our driveway paved with gravel. Give it a few years and it turns to puddles and clay wallows.

At the end of the day, iris reticulata are my absolute favorite early spring flower. They knock my socks off every single year. Even on years where the snow wipes out a whole wave of them by smothering the blooms, the next wave of flowers pushes right past. It's so worth it. Now that I've started seeing what other hybrid varieties bring to the party, I am excited to see how it might extend the bloom time. I splurged this fall and purchased some of Alan McMurtrie's 'Eye Catcher'. I can't wait to see how they take off in the garden!

Comments

  1. KathyJanuary 18, 2025 at 3:40 PM

    Iris reticulata don't last for me. They come up the first year, maybe the second, and that's it. They sure don't like my clay soil, even if they like yours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex SollaJanuary 20, 2025 at 10:29 AM

    I agree about them not lasting. I always assumed it was the critters consuming them. I have found the little reticulated paper husks laying on the ground in early summer. I figured that was due to chipmunks and squirrels. Not sure what to think about the clay soil... in part because I am trying so hard to keep adding stuff on top of it. It is just too rotten to keep digging into. Sticky for the spring and fall and hard as a rock the rest of the year!

    ReplyDelete

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