Iris pallida Dalmatica (old fashioned Sweet iris)

Their has been alot of discussion in the last week about iris pallida..whether people like the varigated strippey kind or the old fashioned solid silvery 'dalmatica' and 'princess beatrice varieties'. i prefer the solid leaf old fashioned dalmatica pallida. here is a picture of mine i took today just as it started to rain coming up my drive way. they started sending up scapes/stalks about 4 days ago, but none have opened blooms yet. i seperated about ten clumps out about 6 years ago when i moved in,and last year, but you cant tell as these i was told have been here since the mid 1950's. they still need some more seperating bad this summer after they bloom, but im not sure i want to part with any as this is the only variety im stingey with cuz they mean alot to me, and i can always find room in my yard for more pallidas.ha ha ha..mike.

Heres the Dave's Garden Link for the DG info page for this species 'Sweet iris..Iris pallida dalmatica'. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/102000/ If you have this old fashioned heirloom variety which is often overlooked and taken for granted and is no longer carried in even the most specialty catalogs, than please add your zipecode report, because pretty soon this iris atleast the non-varigated variety will become more and more difficult to get and forgotten about..and that would be a tradgedy..peace..mike.

Dalmatica will take over any place it is planted. don't worry about parting with a few. It is also available from Superstition Iris gardens which grow a lot of historics. You have a lovely clump,er patch.

yeah your right, Iris City Gardens in Nashville, TN, and Willow Bend Iris Farm in Grand Junction, CO also have them too..still not commonly found anymore today though.Superstition in CA, i saw, also has 'Queen of may' and 'Lord of June' which look like pretty neat historics, and Willow Bend has 'Amas' marked down to two dallars!!. i got up real early this morning and a couple of the buds with the crinkley white shell covers are starting to get blue tips on the buds where the petals ar starting to peek out :-)

also, this is what i have done withe the ten clumps i separated out last year, i put them down it the front of the yard about every 4 feet out from each sweet gum tree and put some rock flowers 10 (creeping phlox)around the front of each from Lowes that also bloom in the spring to mark them and some black mulch arond the trees to accent the irises..this was all accomplshed for under like 85 bucks, as i already had the iris pallida, and just had to buy the rock flowers for like 35$ and the 8 bags of black mulch for around 50$

I hope they have enough sun. It should be a pretty display.

yeah, i made sure when i planted them in the summer last year that their was plenty of light on them and no big limbs shading them. i know what your talking about though, because i had some near my back porch that were shaded and they never bloomed till i move them out a couple feet where it was sunnier..pallidas are better than alot of other tb irises though about being a little bit more shade tolerant though..trust me though these ones down in the yard will have plenty of hot nc sun to bake their leaves all summer long to send up even more blooms next year hopefully..peace..mike :-)

Good for you; and may your iris display win more fans for them.

Themikeman, I love all the pallidas. I realized the varigated resembled fencing in one of my borders and it was kind of a cool look.

I have two sizes of the solid green Pallidas. The large bloomed plant grows strong. The smaller bloom doesn't spread as much. Like you, I want them all over. I can't get enough of the scent.

Your huge patch is wonderful. How about a photo when they all open?

I love the grouping around the sweetgum!

Many pallidas grow well here. The ones with variegated folliage do not.

Thanks BillyPorter and IrisMa..i will be sure to post some pics on this thread when they all bloom..also everybody, when smelling these and handling these a little you should be ok, but if your cutting the stalks alot for flower arrangements i would were a thin pair of gloves.i read once that these pallidas are the most toxic of the tb iris and if you get too much of their resin or sap on you when cutting the leaves or stems; they can cause neurolgical problems like hand tremors and rapid jerking movements, seizure, rapid heartbeat or partial abscence seizure and disorientation which can last for hours or days..so if you have small kids tell them its not adviseable to go sticking these pallida flowers or stems in their mouth or tearing off their leaves with their fingers..mike

Mike, thanks for the warning. I din't know that. Luckily, iris are the one flower I don't cut. I go out every day to visit them in the flower beds :o)

My large flowered are a lighter purple than my smaller blooming one.

The large in 2007

The smaller bloom in 2008

@billyporter.WoW!!..your pallidas are thriving!!! it looks like every single fan of pallida you have has a tall beautiful healthy stalk and flower..hopefully after i seperate some of mine theyll bloom better, i always hate to seperate them though if i dont have too, especially all at one time because im afraid if i disturb them too much they might not bloom the following year.but its gotten to the point were the ones coming up the driveway on the hill have gotten so crowded even after a tiny bit of seperating, that im supprised they are blooming at all ,because i bet some of the original largest clumps have the mother rhizomes from like 60 years ago when first planted on them and have not been broken off and the ones not growing horizontally are probably literally growing down to china..lol..mike

just went outside alittle while ago and my first pallida bloom of the season just opened..

Thanks Mike! I do divide and treat them like all the rest of the iris. I wait till July and I do break off the old rhizomes. They don't get the iris borer too bad, but I do put the systemic on them.

I've had crowded iris that have grown over top of old rhizomes. I usually have to dig almost all of them every three years since I don'r have a lot of room to space them more. I set a lot of extras on a free pile I make across the road.

It's beautiful!! Sniff it for me, mine are a long way from blooming.

I LOVE the Iris Padilla. I got them a few years ago from a trade here on DG. This is the first year they've bloomed. Mine is a light lavender with solid leaves and I just love the smell! I had my kids smelled them and my 8 year old daughter said they smelled like her grape medicine! Ha! I may have to check out those places that sells them and see about getting some more.

LiliMerci, I love getting scent from a plant that usually doesn't have any. I have smelled all of my beardeds now and some do have an odor. Not always good. I think it's ''Cherry Glen'' that smells like cat pee :o)

Most pallidas are sented. However when you have a large group of TB iris planted together the combined fragrance is lovely.

I'm hoping my Pallida make a come-back. I noticed them dwindling, so I divided and replanted small starts. I'm hoping to get them scattered around the yard and then hope they get to be a nice patch.

billyporter, OMG, cat pee is not a good smell on an iris! LOL!

Gorgeous photos everyone;o) I have no Pallidas so did not know they had a scent - thanks for the heads-up!

Is this the same as the tiny wild iris you can find?

Which tiny wild iris are you thinking about? I. verna is native to KY. I. pallida like all bearded irises are a native of Europe. the tall bearded garden irises are descended from several species of which pallida is one.

the little crested one.

Iris reticulata????

Do you have a link? Maybe

Are you speaking of tiny plants or tiny blossoms? The versicolor and/or virginica would be wild in the Kentucky flatlands or at higher elevations around streams and ponds.

Iris cristata.