OT-BIO, plus companion plants




I seem to have joined the list at a particularly good time - there are some
threads going that I find really interesting, so I'll jump in.

I'm new to the iris world. This is my first year, since we just got into a
house in December 1995. Most of our small backyard is devoted to my
husband's veggie garden and fruit trees, so there wasn't too much space
left for non-edible items. I do have a nice raised bed bordered by moss
rock in one corner that's all mine, though. Well, except for the feijoa
tree (aka pineapple guava) in the actual corner. The fruit, of course, is
edible and actually quite delicious.

I started getting interested in iris last summer about the time we were
having our yard put in, so a friend at work gave me some freebies from her
own garden as she did her dividing in August. Unfortunately, she doesn't
know the names of those she gave me, but they all grew well and are just
beauties. Some really dark purple with dark purple beards, some short lilac
ones, a blue/purple plicata (similar to the Blue Staccato I bought but more
like another variety I've seen called Batik), and one with sort of
pinkish/yellow standards and lavendar falls with blue/yellow beards. I also
ordered a few more (MALAGUENA, VICTORIA FALLS, IMMORTALITY, BLUE STACCATO)
and got extras (BLUE BUBBLES and INNER VISION - both are wonderful; INNER
VISION had these huge flowers that were a lovely white just touched with a
blue tint) from Cal-Dixie Iris Gardens down in Riverside, CA.

The problem is that now I'm hooked. I visited our local Maryott iris garden
a couple of weeks ago and also received the new catalog from Cal-Dixie.
It's tough to figure out how many more plants I can squeeze into my limited
space, though. It was very interesting to hear that some people have
successfully grown iris in containers. Some of the smaller ones I have now
would probably look great in these dark green pots I've got.

My companion plants turned out even better than I'd hoped. At the edge of
the raised bed, I planted sweet allysum "Easter Basket" (several shades of
lavender, rose, pink and white) which tumbles nicely over the edge and
softens the look of the moss rocks. Then behind those are some Johnny
Jump-Ups, which, with their white, purple, and yellow faces, coordinated
very well with the iris, most of which were in similar colors. The iris
were planted from the middle of the bed back. Both the allysum and the
violas started filling in the front of the bed well before the iris
bloomed, and they're still going. Even though the iris fans are attractive,
I prefer to have a little something else going on.

Well, I'll be spending time with the iris catalogs this weekend, I'm sure.

Karen Draper
San Jose, CA  / zone 8 or 9, depending on whom you ask, but mostly lovely
most of the year (although I'd rather not have the 90's we're expecting
this weekend, but the hubby thinks it's great for the peppers, squash, and
tomatoes.)
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