Beauty series of Dutch Iris

These are great garden plants!  We now have Silvery Beauty (white/pale
blue), Cream Beauty (white/yellow), Gypsy Beauty (blue/ pale yellow w. blue
veins), Oriental Beauty (yellow/blue) and Rusty Beauty (yellow/pale yellow
w. purplish brown veins) [color of standards first, then falls].  The
flowers are near-TB size and the strong stalks are about 24-30" tall.
Individual flowers last for at least 4-5 days, most stems have 2 buds. And
an advantage is that they can be had at the rate of a dozen for the cost of
a single TB rhizome.  Even if they don't persist in your area (as they do
not in mine), you can use them as annuals.

Spanish irises are also blooming now and are very close to the Dutch, but
with smaller flowers on shorter stalks.  The mixed bag I bought has
produced only white and a very intense indigo blue so far.

My small planting of English Irises looks very good at this point, no
wilting or browning of the foliage as sometimes happens when our heat comes
as expected in May.  The cool spring may actually let me see some bloom on
these.

Also spectacular in this somewhat so-so iris year is a clump of I.
graminea, with so many flower stems it actually has a garden impact for a
change.  Unluckily, no fragrance is evident on this seed-grown clone.

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@hsc.edu>
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