Re: CULT: New Iris acquisitions, I. unguicularis

>Hi everyone!
>             While in Sydney, I unexpectedly discovered a clump of Iris
>blooming in a pot in my grandmother's backyard.  I'm pretty sure it is the
>Algerian Iris (otherwise known as I.unguicularis or I.stylosa) (It looked
>identical to a picture of that in a nursery catalogue she had.)

Ann, several members of our club are growing I. unguicularis, so we've
discussed it a time or two. The info I've distilled from those discussions
is that the plant requires several years to adjust after transplant. Given
the proper location, it thrives on neglect. Experts suggest a
semi-protected spot outside, perhaps on the south side of a garden wall,
well-drained and slightly alkaline.

Here's a quote W.G. Waters sent our newsletter from his article "The Winter
Iris" published in the spring '89 Pacific Horticulture:
"I found Iris unguicularis more demanding in England. There I gave my plant
of it the most favored place in the garden, sheltered from cold winds and
open to every ray of sunshine. Even so, flowers were scarce. I was not
alone in my disappointment. Gardeners all over the country wrote to the
editor of Gardener's Chronicle, and perhaps write now, complaining of the
lack of flowers. Some had plants still without flowers after several years
of cultivation. More fortunate gardeners with flowering plants who thought
they knew the reason for it sent in advice. Their recipes included mortar
rubble in the soil. This was a favorite of old gardeners when a slightly
alkaline soil was needed. (No clematis, for example, could flourish without
it.) When brick walls were built using mortar of sand and lime it was,
without doubt, a splendid recipe for the health of many plants, but now
mortar is made of Portland cement, and the rubble is less prophylactic. One
reader said that his winter iris began to flower after the family dog made
a bed in it. Another wrote to ask the breed of dog."

The rest of the piece is equally amusing. In a note, Mr. Waters added, "In
our summer-dry California climate Iris unguicularis is very much at home.
It seems to flower most freely when fall rains are heaviest. This need for
water in fall is not mentioned much by writers on the subject, and may be a
factor in the difficulty some gardeners have with the iris in England."

Mary Ann King, a superb gardener in London, Arkansas, told the newsletter
that her clump "is planted on the 45-degree slope above my house on typical
Arkansas hillside rocky soil. It does get sun from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. from
about May to October, then it mostly gets full sun from November to April.
I never water it, never feed it, never hardly weed it and still it seldom
fails to do the job of brightening the dreary days of winter."

Janet Murphy, past president of the Fort Worth Iris Society in Texas,
described performance of three different cultivars she'd bought from
various sources. All three bore poorly until she'd had them about four
years. Interestingly, she has them in the same bed with her Louisianas, and
yet they're doing OK. Possibly her home soil there is rather alkaline to
start. But what is it Clarence Mahan says, "No absolutes"?

Mrs. Murphy told our newsletter: "I agree that they like to be
well-established before they will bloom successfully. I have them planted
in a protected area, in a raised bed on the east side of the house facing
south along the back wall of my garage which protects them from the north
winds and reflects the heat of the winter sun. I had tried them in a bed on
the west side of the house at first without success. Wayside replaced them.
These winter iris don't get any special treatment from me. I also have
Louisiana irises in this bed so they get quite a bit of water during the
spring and acid fertilizer a couple of times each year."

The preponderance of printed advice we found suggests an alkaline soil, but
there may be some tolerance variation among the cultivars.

Hope this helps a little.

celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas
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