Suggestions pls...white-flowered perennial iris companion

I want to plant a row of white-flowered, long-blooming, perennial plants at the front edge of a flower bed...not phlox.
Any ideas??
Deb

White arabis is a nice early blooming short plant. Mine mound up to around 10-12" if you give them regular hair cuts around the edges. Then they rebloom later in the summer. Really thick sort of like ice plant but thinner and with leaves.

Good suggestion Oberon46. That would look lovely!!

Many columbine have a lot of white in them.

The white form of blue flax - Linum perenne 'Album' - associates well with iris. The leaves are tiny, so they don't shade the iris roots. Flax blooms from mid-May onwards here, and if it stops blooming, cutting it back will make it bloom again. In my garden it gets about a foot high if not cut back, but might grow taller in a warmer zone.

Edited to add: Linum perenne will seed itself around, and if you also grow the blue form, you'll get blue seedlings mixed in with the white.

This message was edited Feb 5, 2012 9:12 PM

White yarrow.

White allium.

Hi...An all summer bloomer is Osteospurmum (spring-frost, if deadheaded). I have two both are perenns.; one is light lavender and the other is white with lav. reverse, 8-12". Could seed in Alyssum, annual, 4-6", white and very fragrant; Delphinium grandiflora is available in white also, 12", blooms spring to fall (deadhead), reseeds lightly; Dianthus many white are available, the half hardies will bloom all summmer; Perennial geraniums also come in white, some are all summer bloomers. I use to throw seed for cosmos in with my iris as they come up and bloom after the iris are done. There are some shorter daisies that would bloom all summer also. Caliroe also comes in white and would bloom all season. Those are just a few that would bloom all season. If your interested in seasonals ( ie. spring) ther are many more to choose from. You didn't specify what height your looking for. Will attempt to think of more, is challenging with 20" of that white stuff on the ground, lol. If not to worried about the height, two more I can think of are Veronica spicata "Icicles" at 16"; and Salvia nemerosa alba, 18". Both bloom spring-frost.

Pix is centaurea montana "Amethyst in Snow" 18-24"X24" all season; Veronica spicata in blue (comes in white just don't have a pix of mine); 3rd is Campanula persicifolia in blue but available in white also and all summer bloom; Salvia nemerosa Alba; and the last pix is Dianthus Hybrid Loveliness, very fragrant and spring-frost at 12-18".

I need very short like 6" so they will not shade out the iris rhizomes...they need sun

With my irises I love geranium St. Ola and Biokovo. Both have a little pink, but give off a garden effect that's white. They are very long blooming. And don't shade out even the medians.

Polly - is it a fact that the sun has to hit the rhizome? I know leaves must get the sunshine but I've just never heard of it being required for the actual rhizome.

how about the alyssum (annual), would work good, also are there any white Johnny Jump Ups, if not there are violets that are white and short 4-6", oderata is fragrant but not sure of all the colors. Also there is an annual Iberis (candytuft), short, wanna say within your range. Is there a white form of Laurentia, (Annual), seems like there is one that is also fragrant . Alpine strawberries would have a white bloom and fruit to boot, very sweet but small. Campanula White Clips, about 4", think they bloom all summer too, might be some other goodies in the campanula range also. Go to Bluebird nursery.com for pix and descriptions of many campanulas that might work. Seems like they also have a section on groundcovers and herbs. Portulaca (Annual) not sure if there are any solid white selections tho. Erigeron karvinskianus "Profusion" 6", (p). Platycodon grandiflorum "Fuji White", 6", (P). So here's some more goodies to look up. Lol!
Pix: first two are campanulas, third is lilium formosianum I believe, from seed and is 4-6", very fragrant (Park Seed.com) tho only a july bloomer, could mix with alyssum.

sun would help dry rhizome off to help keep rot from forming.

Thanks, Lucy.

It's my understanding that the bearded irises get their food from the leaves, which is stored in the rhizome. The sun is more to keep them dry as Lucy said. In sandy soil as I have rot is never a problem, so I grow them with anything.

I'm surely not an expert on bearded irises, though, but this is my understanding. Lucy may correct me.

The rhizome is a food storage stem.

These are pictures from one of my trading partners. Hopefully you can see them, they are on Picasa Web Albums. But you will see irises don't need to be isolated. Hers are grown with all sorts of other plants, and I think everyone would agree they are well grown.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108274884195904363782/2Iris2010

Yes, Lucy, but doesn't the food it stores come from the leaves, as Pirl said?

Since I plant mine on mounds, or elevated areas, and have excellent drainage I don't have the rot problem. They are grown here with lupine, yarrow, salvia, phlox, digitalis, allium, roses, azaleas, and other perennials.

I also felt it was important for the leaves to get the sun, not the rhizome.

Those photos were lovely.Thanks to all for the help.

Hopefully, the photos and ideas for taller plants will be of help to estrai1lrider.

Sorry about the lopsided photo!

Oh pirl...what's the name of the last one? Wow!!

Polly....those are absolutely stunning photos. Where's that garden located? The color saturation is fabulous. And how big is her garden to be able to segregate into colors and hues of those colors. That's sooooo inspiring. I wanna go out and plant, shucks, can't, 20" of that white stuff out there.

It's Rip City, a gift from doss. I love it.

Kathy, her garden is up near Buffalo, NY, and she does have quite a bit of room. But she does it all herself with no help. Her gardens were pictured in the last AIS bulletin.

Great information here today thanks everyone.I am just getting into iris.

The regiona; hybridizers meeting was yesterday. You will not belive some of the aqua blues & the yellows turning up in the Joe Pye Weed garden. Stephie Markham & Mom-Lynn had great photos. I had the CD that I had for last yrs crosses which were turned upside down, but the computer wizzes figured it out.

I keep other plants far away enough from my rhizomes to keep them dryer. Not as likely to rot that way. They seem to grow better that way here, too.

For fear of offending some I sorry, I must admit I have grown iris in my mixed flower borders for years, and never had a second thought about doing such. In fact in some gardens where the iris were segregated to an iris border, I've also added annuals that reseed themseves, specifically I grew gypsophilla (baby's breath --Covent Gardens). I've also allowed Nicotioanna sandersae Heaven Scent to seed in where it may. At one time I had Gypsophila Old Hamiana growing in my iris but it was a bit more reseeding than I liked, I switched to G. paniculata which is a better behaved peren. and also a better cut flower. Heck, I've even allowed cosmos to seed and reseed at will into the iris. Now I must admit it is a bit drier here in colo. so I'm not sure if that's the reason but I can't think I've ever had any rhiz. rot . I was just looking for ways to extend the season of bloom and get constant color. Am I a bad girl or what? LOL......In fact I have several large bags of cosmos seed I am going to throw out in the new iris border beds this spring.

Second pix is my new iris bed (inbetween the fence posts, the dirt area is now planted with hundreds of iris and is where the cosmos will be thrown)

Wow!!! Our drie looks a bit like that with the fences along it. We have the Chesapeake Bay 10 miles to the west and the Atlantic Ocean 7 miles to the east of us. The sandy soil gets very dry in the summer but it is also quite humid. I will never have the energy to plant along our fences and the horses would get most of the flowers along it anyway.

I know there's a white flowered strawberry that doesn't put out runners, and you can eat the strawberries. Fragaria Alexandra, or Alexandria, I've seen both names. That would be a pretty edging.

Is a foot too tall? I don't know what type of iris you are putting there, but this plant actually is shorter due to the way it grows, flowers all year and doesn't reseed.

http://www.bohnsfarm.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/1117/index.htm

Beautiful mint Polly

I know Jo. I've been thinking if I can find a flat available...........

Is this mint in addition to the other white one ? Little Tik?

Nepeta Little Titch is purple, or I would have suggested that one too. That looks to be a nice low plant, also.

I was close.

shasta 'snow lady'
campanula 'white clips'
dianthus 'white maiden'
love the 'rip city'!

Thanks for the White Clips tip.

tried it myself....
it bloomed like crazy
very pretty in low light

I have it planted in a container.I ad different annuals each year so it always has new company
White Clips

How pretty. Never thought about putting it in a container. Clips, white and blue, spreads pretty prolifically here. Not quite invasive since it doesn't hurt other things, is a nice short ground cover and is (fairly) easy to control. My Purple Dragon sedum is a great border flower and would look really good with white flowers behind.

That sounds lovely.