Although American hybridizers have been growing bearded irises for little more than fifty years, they have produced countless numbers of the most beautiful irises in the world today.
Now a new area is being explored, including all the middle-sized bearded iris referred to as medians.
These vary in height from a maximum of 28” inches to the little fellows, which are just a bit larger than the real dwarfs.
They may bloom with the dwarfs or late tall bearded or bridge the gap between the blooming of these two groups.
One reason for the sudden popularity of the medians is that their peak of bloom comes in that barren period that follows the first great burst of spring.
This median group fills a long-felt want for the middle-sized garden that cannot make room for many clumps of tall bearded iris.
For the pint-sized garden, they are a must, and for all, they are necessary to give variety to the late spring picture.
Median Iris Classification
Four different horticultural groups are included in the median iris classification:
- Intermediate
- Table or miniature-tall
- Lilliput
- Border
Lilliput Group
First to bloom for me are the Lilliputs, enchanting first-generation hybrids of tall bearded varieties, and the tiny pumila.
Their blooming season of the iris is intermediate between the early dwarfs and early tall bearded, and their height varies from 6” to 15” inches, with the majority being about 10” to 12” inches.
They closely resemble their tall bearded parent in shape, color, substance, and texture.
Paul Cook of Bluffton, Indiana, has contributed a quartet of the iris to the Lilliput group, which has already become famous.
The flowers are in perfect proportion to the height of the plants giving the effect of a diminutive tall bearded iris.
All grow about a foot tall:
- BRITS is off-white with a slightly greenish cast around the beard
- BARIA is light yellow with slightly waved petals and three flowers to a stem
- FAIRY FLAX is a beautifully formed clear light blue
- GREEN SPOT is a beautiful white with a definite green spot on the falls
Liliput Varieties
Unusually colored Lilliput varieties are found among the introductions of Wilma Greenlee of Illinois.
For those of you who are intrigued by green flowers, there is her 12-inch Green Halo which she describes as pale olive-green with a deeper green halo pattern on the falls.
It should go well with light- or medium-blue iris. Brand new are the following:
- SMOOTHY, a pale greenish-yellow self
- TIFFANY, charming child of the well-known
- GRAPE SPOT, buff with a heliotrope-grape spot on the falls
Two other brand-new Lilliputs soon to be made available are Dorothy Dennis’s lovely plicata DALE DENNIS which I have seen only in Kodachrome, and Helen Doriot’s ALLAH, a gorgeous flower, I am told.
It has blue standards with a green wash, falls green at the hafts, and a blended spot.
Two other varieties which I have not yet seen were introduced last year by Clarence Jonas are:
- YELLOW BANTAM is a 12″-inch lemon self with several flowers per stalk
- ORANGE BANTAM is the first orange iris among the Lilliputs
Lilliput Hybrids
It is described as a miniature NARANJA, 10″ inches tall and early blooming. Geddes Douglas, a famous iris hybridizer, has introduced many Lilliput hybrids.
- PYGMY GAM, a 10-inch brilliant yellow with a long season of bloom, and
- HAPPY THOUGHT, a soft sulfur-yellow, are both fragrant.
- SMALL WONDER is an early blooming, clear medium blue, and Lilliputs is a pure light blue with a darker blue spot on the falls—both about 12″ inches tall.
- LITTLE ROSY WINGS, a remarkably vigorous iris only 8″ inches tall, is a clear, bright rose. Combined with deep purple Iris Chamaeris and the snowy froth of perennial candytuft, it makes a charming picture.
Try GARNET TREASURE, red standards, garnet falls, and LITTLE SHADOW, a dark purple with a matching beard for darker colors.
Oldest Known Iris
The intermediate group is not a new one. In fact, according to Dr. L. F. Randolph of Cornell University, this group includes some of the oldest known iris.
The English hybridizer Caparne, in the early years of the century, produced the first modern intermediates, characterized by great vigor, when he crossed tall bearded varieties with the dwarf Iris Chamaeris.
Though both beautiful and garden-worthy, the resulting hybrids were almost sterile, and little further work was attempted with this group until recently.
Now new avenues for breeding are opening, and improved varieties can be expected.
Wilma Greenlee, with her BLUE ASTERISK and CLOUD FLUFF, and Paul Cook, with FLORINDA, are the first to succeed with the new field breeding.
Table Iris
Table iris, or the miniature stools, are not a new group either.
Wide “antique” varieties in this group are being eagerly sought from old gardens and are beginning to appear in catalog listings.
They have been in vogue among flower arrangers for several years, but now their great value for garden use is being rediscovered.
Hybridizers who previously discarded all the smaller seedlings as being “inferior” are now taking a long second look before consigning them to the compost heap.
Characteristics Of Table Iris
Characteristics of the table iris include a slender stem with good branching, not rigidly erect, and a flower in proportion to the height and stem, not to exceed 3″ inches. Most of these bloom with the tall-bearded and thus allow variation in form.
If you have a small garden and find the taller bearded iris a bit overwhelming, you will certainly want to try some of these more delicate and piquant table iris among your columbines and lupines.
Good Table Iris
Good table iris includes the following:
- TOM TIT, an excellent dark blue-violet
- MONARDA, which Ben Hager says is the best red self in this class
- SHERWIN WRIGHT, with well-formed flowers of a good yellow
- KINGLET, dainty small golden yellow
- SPRING SPRITE, with yellow standards and light-blue falls
- WARBLER, a glowing yellow
- WIDGET, lavender and white plicata
There are many others, all available at modest prices. However, recently introduced varieties such as PINK DOLL, QUEEN SABE, TABLE TALK, and LITTLE HELEN are more expensive.
Border Iris
Border iris is the tallest of the medians and just under 28″ inches tall. Therefore, their bloom period is roughly medium to late.
Here, we find a full-color range from the ruffled white of COLUMBINE through the lavender of FLUFF.
From the tangerine pink of Latham’s new INGENUE to the primrose yellow of Cassebeer’s charming PRIMROSE BONNET and Tom Craig’s MooNcFuto—a rapid increaser which I can’t resist including.
It is a 22-inch oncobred, a sort of amethyst-grey with a purple signal below the beard.
I have planted it in front of the ruffled pink PARTY DRESS, which is only about 26″ inches tall, and next to the older variety BLACK FOREST which I love so dearly.
Not large or tall, but what sheen and substance those blue-black petals have!
Perfect Border Iris
If I could have only 10 different iris—perish the thought—one of them would be BLACK FOREST, the perfect border iris.
This is a medium-to-late bloomer, and I have often thought it would be wonderful to have it blooming in April.
Such wild wishes are no longer impossible dreams, and the importance of medians in extending the iris season cannot be overestimated.
The hybridizing here is really only in its infancy, and already, so much has been accomplished.
There is reason to hope that small lovelies blooming in June and 28″-inch stalks of gorgeous blossoms in April are just around the bend in this new middle way.
44659 by Na