A lady gave me some irises she said were given to her as wild irises. She had mentioned before that
she had a source for the old blue flag irises. The leaves have vertical ribs and the rhizomes are about
the size of my little finger and have nice healthy white roots and a lot of black, hairy roots. Don't want
to take a lot of time from the other threads but can someone give me a rough identification of species.
I planted them as though they were JI's with peat moss and 3 inches deep soaked with water.
If N.American native--either I. versicolor or I. setosa. versicolor often known as blue flags. LA perhaps, they have ribbed leaves.
According to an Illinois gardener's guide, the only wild irises in this general area are I.virginica
and I.versicolor. The author refers to blue flag as virginica. I guess we shall see next year.
virginica is the more southern plant, so versicolor is 'blue flag' here.
What do you consider to be the correct planting depth? I can raise them a bit tomorrow
before they begin to root. I planted them as JI's but the sibs were planted only about an
inch deep. I do not have a good reference for planting these but the crowns above the
rhizomes did not appear to have been planted more than about an inch or so in the original
mud she had for the clump.
Versicolor has a more grey green leaf than many beardless, and they arch slightly at the top. They are quite wide.
Versicolor, as far as I know, is the one most often referred to as blue flag. I know others are, but versicolor is commonly referred to as that.
In Irises by Claire Austin, she says versicolor is commonly referred to as blue flag, and she's from England.
We cross posted.
Versicolors are most correctly grown like sibs. Planting depth between 2-3 inches from the top of the rhizome to the top of the ground will be fine. Planting them like Japanese irises will be fine too. A very easy to grow iris.
Beardless irises often grow higher up in the soil as they increase. Lots of times the rhizomes will grow on top of each other. So that may be why they were only an inch below ground level. or that may be ow she planted them. I'm sure they would grow fine at that depth. But 2-3 inches will be optimal.
Thanks for the advice. The deeper planting should help keep them cooler and moist in our
summer temps. 10 days ago, farmers were planting the same fields for the third time due
to all the rain and now, after several days of 95+, I have open cracks in my clay yard.
You're welcome.
Makes it hard to make any money being a farmer. We've had a good year up here, and the muck growers, (our most common farmers) are getting their second crop of onions in already.
I know you mulch everything well. That will really help too.
