Siberian Irises – vigorous, easy to
grow and no longer just ‘mauve’ by Sally Gregson
PLANT PROFILE
Is your garden blighted by heavy clay soil?
Have you spent a lot of money at the garden centre on beautiful plants that take one look at your border and turn up their noses?
Iris sibirica ‘Pink Haze’
And when you do manage to work the soil, do you find plant labels
dotted about like tombstones marking the departure of the beautiful friends of previous years? It can all be quite depressing.
But there are some plants that will grow for England even in clay soils.
Day Lilies (Hemerocallis) and sedges (Carex) suffer abuse well. And they create a good combination of brazen colours. But be-speckle the planting with blue and purple Siberian irises (Iris sibirica) and that heavy clay border is transformed into a thing of sumptuous beauty.
Unlike its manifold cousins such as the bearded Irises which need good drainage and full sun, or the damp- loving irises, I. ensata and I. Laevigata; I. sibirica is a very
Propagating Siberian irises
flowering.
into groups of two or three, discarding the woody part in the centre.
garden compost, water them in well, and mulch them with more compost.
Or:
and are starting to split.
the fridge until the following spring.
in) pots when they are large enough.
years.
Iris Society before giving it a name.
good all-rounder. It’s a supremely healthy plant: vigorous, easy to grow, and rarely suffers from fungal diseases or garden pests. Clumps are often left for years without division and still produce flowers every June, although it’s always better to rejuvenate old clumps by dividing and replanting them regularly.
Iris sibirica flowers well in light shade or sun, and has the useful attribute of holding its flowers well above the leaves. Once they have faded its foliage remains green throughout the summer lending good vertical accents amongst later-flowering perennials. Then in autumn the leaves and seedpods turn chestnut brown and their structure stands into the winter.
Working together Iris sibirica flowering would coincide with vivid pink campions (Silene dioica) which enjoy similar conditions
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Because of their strong will to live, Siberian irises could be grown in an area of long grass. They would need to be named varieties selected for their height and vigour, or patient gardeners could raise a batch from seed (see box) and allow for the attrition of weaker specimens. Planted out in the autumn they would get their roots down firmly and become established by the following spring when the surrounding grassland started to grow. Dig goodly deep holes and improve the soil with garden compost before planting out large crowns that are at least three or four years old from seed. Their flowering would coincide with bright Ox-eye daisies and vivid pink campions (Silene dioica) which enjoy similar conditions.
Country Gardener
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