Iris cristata feedback

I am considering adding iris cristata to my website. I have not had much experience with it, and would like some input.

The two varieties I will be adding are Tennessee White and Powder Blue Giant or Eco Bluebird.

If you are growing iris cristata, please tell me what kind of luck you have had with it, and anything I should know about how to grow it.

Also, when you purchased it, did it come potted or bare root?

Thanks all!

It does a great job of growing in partial shade. Joe Pye Weed sends them potted. Navy Blue Gem also nice, darker blue. Powder blue Giant is a great grower. 'Doubly Stylish' a Schmeider plant will be introduced by Joe Pye Weed next spring. We grow the white I.cristata alba underneath a tree. You have to work for differences as there is not as many different characteristics as some other types of the plants.

Thanks, Lucy.

I've heard they are sent potted. Any idea why?

I suspect that the root system needs more protection. Since we just grow them, ask Marty & Jan who ship them.

I can do that. They are always vey helpful, and maybe Dee will know also. It could be the roots don't go deep, too. In fact, I think I'll ask on the species robin.

Anyone else growing it?

Here Polly when I ship, I too ship potted because when I ship in moist pack they do not seem to make it for it long. Yet potted with nice established roots they do well.

D

I would have thought they would grow more like bearded, and ship dry. Not so, Dee? I can do potted, no problem, I was just wondering the reason.

I received quite a few species bearded irises this spring, and they all were shipped potted too, and did well. Aphyllas and some of the rest. But I received aphyllas from Lucy shipped like normal bearded, and they have done wonderfully also. I wonder if that's the case with cristatas. .

I would think bearded species I.pumila might be potted, it is such a small plant, but can have long root. How did your Suslik arrive, Polly? I hear good growth reports on it all over the country, unusual for a pumila, I should think.

Suslik came bare root. I'm pretty sure I got that from Winterberry. It is an excellent grower. It tends to go dormant in the summer, is that common? It did this summer, and has lots of new growth on it late summer, and into fall.

Maybe that's the reason, Lucy, just because they are so small.

yes, in pumila's native habitat it tends to snuggle in the grass.

I got my answer on selling cristata potted from Rodney Barton of SIGNA.. He says the roots on cristata are very fragile.

Anyone else growing cristata that can tell me about them? How quickly they spread, any luck you've had with dividing them, etc.?

Remember, they really don't like much sun. As I said, Powder blue giant is a terrific grower, so spreads. The others, depends on the variety like any other plant. We took some off our I.cristata alba & the others sulked a bit, but I am sure it will recover. since we are not selling them, usually just let them go on. An 'open' winter one year, sort of set them back.

I grow the wild species, that I just dug up from a creek bank. I rhizomes are tiny, so I can see that they would be best shipped potted. They appreciate plenty of moisture, but regular garden conditions are fine for them. I found when they get partial sun they form a denser clump. Come to think of it, those I had were casualties of the back hoe last year- I just now realized it! They were easy to divide and transplant, and multiply fairly quickly when happy.

Thanks Lucy. Yes, I know they don't like much sun. I appreciate your help as always.

Thanks Neal, great info as usual.

Since I've never grown them, I'd like to know as much about them as I can, if I'm going to sell them. They are coming to me potted.

I've grown them in quite a bit of sun, and they bloomed profusely and formed thick clumps. However the leaves got really ugly in summer, and they're so tiny, they have to be at the front of the border- so that put an eyesore right in front.

Well, that'll sure help me sell them, LOL. I'll be sure to put that on my website. Hmm, lovely plants when in flower, but an eyesore the rest of the year. Maybe I need to rethink this purchase.

Don't worry Neal, I'm just picking on you.

Actually I do have one plant of them, Edgar Anderson, and it's in heavy shade, but is a reluctant bloomer so far, but I haven't noticed the foliage looking bad. It's only two, though.

I've only seen that happen on those getting a lot of sun. Otherwise they just look like tiny Iris fans. Partial shade, or at least afternoon shade should be sufficient to keep them looking healthy. In the wild they're typically and heavy to filtered shade of creek banks. In that environment, with competition from other plants, you'll see a sprinkling of blooms. Garden conditions with a bit more light seems to help them create a denser mat and a more solid clump of blooms.

Thanks, Neal. I could just see those customers lining up for eyesores.

(Neal and I are friends folks, just picking).

I wonder what makes the leaves look bad in full sun? I saw a picture of some under a flowering white tree one time. They covered the ground under the tree with blooms, and were so gorgeous. I'm thinking the tree was a crabapple, but I'm not positive. I supose the leaves could be subject to all the diseases like bearded are. That's one reason I like the beardless so much, the leaves stay so nice.

LOL, that just made me think of descriptions like "this weedy little gem is an eyesore for about 48 weeks of the year, but you'll love those pretty little blooms the rest of the time!" Oh, let me write descriptions for the on line catalog!...PLEASE!!!

That foliage issue could have been because the area was dry during summer, now that I'm thinking back. We have a tendency toward dry summers. That would likely do it. They're pretty with Phlox stolonifera, white would be particularly nice.

You're hired!

I had an iris that I thought was lovely, Baby Sister, that no one was buying, so I changed the description on the website to:

'Shoot, darn. I don't know why nobody orders me. I'm cute as a button, very energetic, and blue as a Denver sky. I know I'm short, but I don't mind being up front, and I don't smell. Shucks, darn, (kicking my feet)."

I then got quite a few orders for it. So, I think your descriptions would fit right in. Make people feel sorry for the plant. That's the way.

Maybe it was the dryness. What do you think, Lucy, would dryness make the foliage look bad?

'Baby Sister' is soooo sweet! You sent me one of those, and it's the cutest little clump- I've never seen a Sib that short! She was really generous with blooms too, noticeable from a distance. I'm so glad you mentioned her- I want to move part of the clump next to the sidewalk and another into the Sky Garden, where I want as much of that blue I can can get.

Thanks, I think it's a great little one. Nana alba is another really nice short one. Almost like a siberian cristata.

And it's white? I've been loving whites lately- they show off from a distance, especially with all the spruce trees I have as backgrounds. Does it increase as well as Baby Sister?

No, not as well. Pretty vigorous increaser, but Baby Sister is way vigorous. Nana alba makes a nice clump in about three years, and is quite floriferous.

I don't think that cristata has to be wet & there is often dry shade under trees. It probably varies from year to year. Leaves die back in the fall? Perhaps. I like Annick as well as baby sister. Sassy Kooma is a small white of Currier's--Sharon Whitney should have it.

I got a couple of new little ones from Bob Hollingworth this year, too. I'll have to look up the names, Pixie Preview was one. I like the little guys, they have a place a the front of the border. (Well, all except cristata, maybe.) I'll check out Sassy Kooma, cute name.

It's something that Currier's grandaughter used to say--don't know in what circumstances.

How do you remember all these things? I have a mind like a sieve, LOL.

I have the species type that I moved from one place on our property to our yard. They have not seemed to mind to dry as much as they do sun. Give them a shady spot. Mine have also benefited from just a small amt. of mulch and not a lot of care. I have dug and they have dried some before replanting w/o any problems. I have moved some a while back from our woodland yard in western VA to our more coastal yard in eastern VA. So far they are growing great. I have not had problems with them being an eyesore in the summer but in the fall their leaves die back and I trim them off. They naturally die back anyway and start developing new fans in the winter even under the snow.

'cause it was cute & we all got a kick out of the name. Don't know what the GD, now grown, was refering to.

Neal must be right about the foliage of Iris cristata only going bad in the sun. I have the species at the base of a 75 year old oak, and foliage looks fine all season. BTW, it is dry gravelly, acid base soil there, full high shade. Only a sprinkling of flowers each year. No additional watering. I also grow 'Vein Mountain' in open shade, pictured below is from today. Foliage is still nice.

I second the notion that cristata grows tighter in more sun, but Iris lacustris is overall a tighter species and with somewhat thicker rhizomes.

One year, I forced Iris pumila and Iris cristata for our early March Rock Garden Society banquet. I use plants of both species that I had potted both the spring and the late summer before. All spring potted plants did well. Late summer planted pumila did well. But late summer planted cristata all died. I wonder if these crested Iris cristata have a different root growth time pattern compared to bearded iris, that makes them particularly vulnerable to bare rooting. Because remember, Iris cristata is not a bearded iris.

Rick

I think I had them in a bad combination of sun and dry soil. Even then, they still bloomed well each spring, and I crowd so much stuff in the garden, they couldn't be seen by summer anyway.

Thanks Deb and Rick.

Rick, I was advised to sell them only in spring. So I think I'm on the right track with them. I do know iris cristata is not a bearded iris. It's considered a crested iris in the Section Lophiris with tectorum, formosana, japonica etc. And therefore are considered a beardless species.

Did you know, by the way Rick , that there is a documented cross between a bearded and a beardless iris? Paltec, which is a cross between a pallida (believed to be Beatice), and I. japonica. I grew that quite a few years , and it grew beautifully, until we had a particularly cold winter, and I lost it. So it was obviously much hardier than its I. japonica parentage.

This discussion just reminded me that I started I.tectorum from seed this spring- I must go look for them! I planted the seedlings in the garden- jeez, I hope I didn't yank them with weeds!

Of all the species iris I have grown, tectorum has been the most vigorous from the get-go. Perhaps also I. milesii, but I have yet to determine if the seed is true or not. It sure looks a lot like tectorum. From seed I have grown II. chrysographes, dichotoma, forrestii, gracilipes, graminea, hookeri, humilis, japonica, milesii, odaesanensis, reichenbachii, sanguinea, setosa, sibirica, sintenisii, suaveolens, tectorum, typhifolia, ungulares.

When I discovered there was a Paltec, I was very impressed, excited, skeptical. All the things I felt about Lilium 'Black Beauty', the break through cross of trumpet lilies(actually L. henryi) and Oriental lilies.

And BTW, if anyone is interested in free Lilium seed, look here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1048450/
I am out of davidii and Claude Shride.
Rick

Tectorum has definitely been a good doer for me.

Great list of seed grown species, Rick.

gee, Polly, I don't know much about these, but I bought some because someone told me it was the only iris that would bloom in partial sun to partial shade, and that's what i have most! that's a great selling feature for those of us with lots of trees.

How has it done for you so far, Bonnie? Did you just buy it this year?

yes. this year. so haven't had a bloom yet.