Re: Re: CULT: Iris companion plants

> Miss Jekyll had very finely honed ideas about color in gardens

It wasn't color, but plant form and habit contrast that has seen me
experiment with hardy geraniums and Heuchera.  They actually worked pretty
well with the iris until our recent drought years eliminated them and left
the irises.  Lupines can't survive here except for our native Texas
bluebonnets and I'm content to allow the occasional plant that appears to
spend the short and contemporary bloom reside in the iris beds.  I nearly
always have two or three per season, but not in quantities that could really
be considered companion plants.  They were very nice at the base of CITY
LIGHTS having the same colors.  As for roses, iris clumps existed quite well
in a rambling and exceedingly thorny polyantha.  Those rose plants were much
friendlier to the iris neighbors than to me hands and forearms.  Not even a
medieval coat of armor would be enough to escape those thorns.  The drought
finally took the roses out, but they'd been here a number of years before
that happened.  Various iris varieties came and went amongst them for the
duration.  I did think some miniature rose standards would work.  The
grafted stems would allow air circulation and the grafted blooming roses
would provide some welcome shade for the irises and the growth habits of the
iris would have returned the favor on the stems and conceal the necessary
stakes required for the roses.  I attempted this in the midst of the
drought, so it was mostly a failure.  Plus I'm not fond of standard roses.
I may try it again sometime.  One success is our native blackfoot daisies.
Short, uniform clumps suited to our climate and quite successful at filling
gaps between iris clumps.  They tend to stay pretty neat, but when they do
get ragged, adapt nicely to a haircut and will bloom off and on into the
fall each time after some rain comes.  Hard to transplant, and really only
live 2-3 seasons, but they reseed so it's easy to just leave those that
appear where they are welcome and eliminate the others.  I really am going
to pass on trying nepeta in combo with iris.

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA

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