Re: SIB - True landscape Iris
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: SIB - True landscape Iris
- From: "* A* M* <w*@Ra.MsState.Edu>
- Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 17:11:48 -0700 (MST)
On Sat, 20 Dec 1997, RMTURLEY wrote:
> Dear John Coble,
>
> <<Siberian iris are the only iris that can be recommended to a landscaper for
> use in landscaping a perennial planting.>>
>
> >From the stand point of total plant (both flowering, foliage & adaptablity)
> you are absolutely correct!! If Iris pseudacorus has any floral beauty to it
> then it would be #1 !!!! But it isn't!
>
> Robert Turley
> Lake Charles, LA
> zone 9a
>
Have we ever settled on the 'true' definition of a landscape iris?
Sorry to burst the bubble of the Ensata Gardens, but the Siberian iris is
not 'the landscape iris' in the South. Apologies to my fellow Southern
extension horticulturist, Mr. Turley, as well. Seems to me it would be
heresy in Louisiana to favor the Siberian over the series hexagona!
Anner mentioned Japanese irises but that she hadn't had too much
experience with them. Nor had I until about six or seven years ago. One
always hears about how much water they need and that they are bog plants
or that they should be grown in pots. I now have a long 'row' of Japanese
irises growing on the north side of the house on my well drained hilltop.
They are not in soggy soil, and the only moisture they get is what Mother
Nature provides. Their foliage has been flawless all during the growing
season and like Siberians begins to decline only after frost. JI foliage
here remains upright and doesn't 'sprawl' like the Siberian foliage.
I'm anxious to bloom Christy Hensler's JI X Sib seedlings. Maybe
she has created the elusive 'landscape' iris. Time will tell, though I
think there will be regional landscape irises as is the case with
landscape shrubbery.
Walter Moores
Enid Lake, Ms 7/8
