Devoted Canadian Iris Lovers

I would so dearly love to grow Louisiana iris but just don't have the moist conditions for it ~ started me wondering what irises would work for folks farther North? Figured you Canadians ought to know best so I thought I'd ask those that grow them.

What are your favorite types, or grows the easiest for you? Had any iris failures? Do you go to any great lengths for a variety that needs special conditions? (maybe I'll create an boggy area someday for those Lousianas)

I'd bet there are a lot of lurkers out there, too.... Please introduce yourself and tell me about your Irises and what you like about them!

Mary

oh my, I have many iris, unfortunately they don't have any names!!!! I have never had a problem growing them though, either the tall ones or the miniatures....

Moby, you can grow LAs in a boggy part of your garden -or in a pond - in a pot. Then you can (will have to) bring in the pot for the winter. That is what I do with my LAs.

For quite awhile I used a kiddo pool. Made some holes in the bottom for drainage, filled with good peaty soil (to hold water) and buried the pots in he soil. Kept them quite wet all summer. Very easy to dig up and bring in for the winter.

Oh yes, the kiddy pool was buried too, so while it held water well, you couldn't see that there was a pool there.

Neat thread. Hope it carries on. Who else is growing iris in cold areas.

Although I really don't have any successful experience with LAs here in 3b, I would think that they could overwinter outdoors in zone 5b. Anybody in zone 5 able to verify that?

Laurie

Duh. Didn't look at Moby's zone. Hmm.... Chowning hybrids like Black Gamecock might survive there. It did in my 4b garden in Ont. But zones have changed since hen. I always thought Nebraska was terribly cold. Didn't realize it was so warm. (Relatively, looking at 2b and Laurie's 3b
inanda

Hi, Moby! I remember seeing a presentation at a hort society about growing iris and the fellow grew Louisiana Iris in Ottawa, zone 5a. For me, I stick with Iris pumila, Iris laevigata Variegata, Iris germanica, Siberian, Japanese, Blue Flag, and Yellow Flag in the pond .... not too adventuresome, but these all grow really well up here.

Sandy

Hi everybody!

Glad to see a lively discussion already! I suppose I'll have my boggy garden one fine day ~ now that I have the room for it. Thanks for the tips, Inanda. Last November, DH and I bought a house; nothing terribly fancy but best of all it has a huge yard. Don't recommend moving a garden that time of year, though. Was fortunate to have 5 DG super-gardeners come help or I would have been in a world of hurt. It can be very cold here but nothing compared to winters experienced in Minnesota. Lordy! Nothing like getting hit in the face with -40° and a -70° wind chill. I'm sure Canadian winters are just as charming.

What got me wondering about all of this is that I've had to completely adjust my approach to gardening. I've gone from nearly all high shade to full sun. For 11 years I was desperate for flowers that would bloom in shade and now I have to go the opposite direction. I'm utterly mind-boggled!

Thanks for the info Sandy and Laurie ~ LA would probably be OK here as I have the sun and heat for them, which is good because I don't bring plants in to winter-over. It's do or die around here. :)

threegardeners ~ you don't need to have names ( I have lots of those myself) So I imagine you have tall bearded and... how tall are the mini's? Little bitty ones like Sparky?

Hi Moby,
I know people in Ohio and Pennsylvania who grow LA's and they have a heater for their ponds, which keep them from worrying about them over the winter months. They never bring them indoors and they do just fine. I understand they are slower growing in cold climates, but they do grow and bloom. :-)

~Margie

Really! That's very interesting. Wouldn't have ever thought about doing that.

Well, seeing as I garden in zone 4a, I am going to masquerade as (a sometimes wanna be) Canadian.

I know someone here in Minneapolis that has grown species Louisiana's for at least 10 years. She has Iris fulva and Iris brevicaulis. She does not grow them in wet soil, rather just regular moist garden soil and on a gentle hill. I suspect you can get away with that in colder zones, but in warmer, you may need to keep them more wet. She also has a line of tall trees to the west of the garden that would shade them in the late afternoon, but I would still categorize them as in full sun.

Myself, I have a lot of untested seedling species iris coming, but for the tried and true species that I have, they are these:
Iris:
arenaria
chrysographes
cristata
gracilipes
graminea
hookeri
lacustris
pumila
sangunea
setosa
sibirica
suaveolens
tectorum

Hiya Moby,
I looked around a bit in the Plant files and discovered I have tall bearded, dutch, the flag type in the pond, and the reticulated iris, and the tiny ones like your sparky. I also have one that grows wild around here, no idea what it is though.

Your wild one is probably a versicolor. I had a look at my pix because I have some but --- no pix. That is really exciting - to an irisarian - finding wild iris growing in the wild.

Mine come from seeds I found when walking in New Hampshire woods hunting for iris . I marked the plants because they were in bloom and then my equally iris-mad friend went and collected seed for me.

Heater in a pond -- for IRIS.... Our heater was used to keep water tank open in winter for cows. My family would have laughed at me if I'd said I wanted one for iris. What a great idea.

We gave up with the heater in the end and just pumped water for them daily.

Here is a setosa from seed I found when canoeing (actually exercising retrievers) in alaska.

inanda

inanda

Inanda...the one in the picture....does it come in a yellow version? I was driving around last year and saw one, yellow, that looks a lot like that, growing along a swamp, the plant is about 3 feet high...so of course I had to dig it up and bring it home for the pond as well :))) I don't leave home without a shovel, many times I have slammed on the brakes and skidded to a halt because I have seen colour along the side of the road.....
The wild ones I have are purple, and maybe a foot and a half tall. They grow here in wet land. Down the road from me there is a field a farmer keeps cows in, and they eat everything except these irises, when you drive by the field is just purple with them, they stand right out since there is nothing left growing there.

The yellow swamp iris is probably Iris pseudacorus, and you're probably going to be sorry you put it in your pond (unless you had the foresight to put it in a large pot in your pond). Pseudacorus is on the to-be-eradicated noxious weed list in some U.S. states because of its invasive habits and the way it has crowded out native flora in wetlands. It is banned in a number of states, as well. Once established, pseud can be almost impossible to dig out. Think dynamite. It's a pretty enough flower, but you will have to take great care to make sure you do NOT allow it to set seed that might escape into native wetlands. You should also check with the authorities in your area to see if it's even legal to grow.

Laurie

Laurie, that is so interesting. I never knew that iris pseudacorus is actually banned and illegal to grow in some states. I learn something new every day.

~Margie

Yep, NH banned pseud a few years ago. I'm pretty sure there are other states in which it is banned, as well, though I'd have to do some research to find out exactly which ones.

Moby,
Here is the URL for an Iris grower who has introduced a new iris called Michigan Belle. It was developed for Zone 5. It gave me hope.

http://www.ensata.com/HTML/NewIntros/newMichigan_Belle.htm

For encouragement, check out the last check in the following thread started by me:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/699325/

Inanda writes of growing very hardy LA iris and particularly suggests cultivars by Chowning.

It is really hard to get solid info on LAs. As a kid growing up in New Orleans, I always heard they were hard to grow and had to be grown in a bog. But from time to time I hear that they can be grown without a great deal of water and are easy to grow! I am going to try a few, eventually.

Not Canadian, but just across the water.

Here's a picture I took last year of Louisianas in Rochester NY. We used to be considered Z5a, now have been "upgraded to 6a", but, anyway, the LAs were thriving there, and it was not wet conditions at all.

I planted 6 last year, but can't tell yet how they did. Our coldest temp this winter was -10 with snowcover.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2402145

And here is a picture of the soil they were planted in. It was quite dry, but well mulched

http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2404188

You can not sell the seed or plants in Oregon any more...our local stream has them so thick that they are thinking of dredging it before it worsens, in my opinion should have been along time ago as in 2000 it was just on the banks now it almost touches in the middle and it is about 30' wide...

D

Dee, are you sure that's Louisiana Iris? Pseudacorus is banned in Oregon, but I wasn't aware LI's were anywhere.

Isn't it funny how some people can't grow them, and they grow like a weed elsewhere.

I've never seen a yellow setosa, but there are some whitish ones. Forms are often quite diff. to this one of mine too.

Pseudacorus seeds float so they can spread very easily. A friend near here has a large pond, just full of pseudacorus. Spectacular when in full bloom. He has experimented with sibs in water but it was too wet for them, they didn't make it. He put a couple of pots of LA iris in his pond last summer. Just to see if they will survive the winter. Have no great hopes about this but he wanted to try.

inanda

I finally got to get out to the garden to check out my Louisianas. All 6 have new growth. Apparently they stay green all winter? I'm very happy. Greg at Iris City said they would do well in Z5 with lots of mulch.

I have a LA iris growing and intended to add more, but have been busy adding other plants instead. I moved it to a different location last year and will be curious to see how it comes up this season.

I have a fern that tends to dry out, so I buried an old feed bucket (no holes) and planted above that--it seems to allow extra moisture and keeps the fern green. I'd think that would work well for LA iris if you wanted more moisture for them--and would be a way to see how they grow for you before putting in a boggy garden or pond.

I also grow lots of Siberians, bearded (a few TB and many IB and SDB) pseudacorus, versicolor and cristata---all without troubles.

Take a look at Joe Pye Weed's Garden www.jpwflowers.com they have wonderful iris and you may find some to try.

**edited to correct web link

This message was edited Mar 27, 2007 7:37 PM

Sorry for the misunderstanding. It is Pseudacorus that is banned to sell either the plant or the seed in Oregon and getting on the list now in many states.

D

Yes, that pseudacorus is becoming a thug in many area. I have named varieties of it, and so far they have not set viable seed, here.

And Joe Pyes garden is a great place to buy from. I've had such great luck with them. They are the hybridizers Schafer/ Sacks, and are really nice people.