Re: Companion plants

> For myself, in past years I have kept other plants out of the iris 
> beds, hoping to make keeping the weeds down a little easier. No such 
> luck, I'm afraid!  So, this year I put Cosmos in between the iris, and they 
> have been just wonderful -- nice big healthy plants, feathery foilage, an
> abundance of blooms and much to my surprise, very few weeds! Probably 
> because the Cosmos grows so fast the weeds don't have a chance. So far,
> the iris plants look fine so I don't think they mind sharing their space. 
> At Schreiner's display garden in Salem, they have planted Lupines down 
> the middle of their beds, and sometimes edge them with Pansies or 
> Iceland Poppies.  Guess it all depends on how much of a purist you are; 
> some people just don't like to have anything else in with the iris. I am 
> planning to put Cosmos everywhere next year!

Cosmos *are* weeds, at least here.  You already have Cosmos everywhere
now, though you don't know it yet -- it seeds EVERYWHERE!  They are
prettier than weeds and pull more easily than most weeds.  I have
them, both as hybrid ornamentals, and native WEEDS :-)

Ah, to have Iceland Poppies and pansies and iris... here, the poppies
and pansies would most *definitely* be annuals and would actually
bloom up to and with the iris.  Still nothing for summer.  Our only
lupine, the bluebonnet, finishes its displays around bearded iris
time and so also wouldn't fill in during the summer.  Sigh.

Cosmos would, though.

-- 
Amy Moseley Rupp
amyr@mpd.tandem.com, Austin, TX, zone 8b
Jill O. *Trades
Mistress O. {}
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