Can you imagine speckled and veined flowers in lilac-pink, scarlet-bronze, greenish-white, maroon, gray, and black?
These are the exotic oncocyclus and regalia iris, called aril iris because their seeds have prominent white arils or collars. To some iris fanciers and discriminating gardeners, they are the bluebloods of the flower world.
The colors of these iris are incomparable, and their forms are unique. Iris Susiana, an oncocyclus, is ball-shaped with perfectly domed standards, fully balanced by more minor, recurved, almost black falls.
The regalia Iris korolkowii is just the opposite. Its standards are pointed, and the falls are almost straight hanging. It is a picture in perpendicular design, with veining in both measures and falls adding to the effect.
Regalia Iris Are Naturals
If you live in the Southwest, with a climate similar to that of their native arid regions in the Near East, onto and regalia iris are naturals for you.
Your temperature meets their exacting cultural requirements. But anyone in the United States can grow aril iris in pots or tubs by creating the necessary environment artificially.
Two factors will determine success or failure in preparing the soil to pot aril iris. The first is perfect drainage; the second is alkalinity. Pot the rhizomes in well-crocked pots during late November.
Use rather heavy soil made up of three parts clay loam, two parts sand, and one-half part small charcoal pieces. To this mixture, add enough lime to make an alkaline reaction.
In sections of the Midwest where the soil is slightly alkaline, a thin dusting over the pot’s surface is sufficient. But if rhododendrons grow naturally in your region, you will need more lime.
Only bonemeal or some other slowly available, low-nitrogen fertilizer should be used when the rhizomes are potted. Avoid fast-acting fertilizers since you do not wish to encourage fall growth.
Related: Simple Tips For Growing Fine Iris
Ready For The Winter
After potting, your oncos and regelias are ready to be put to bed for the winter. Plunge the pots in a sunny, well-drained spot. Some iris varieties invariably upset the schedule and put out new growth in early winter.
This growth should be thickly mulched with some light material which will not pack, such as straw or excelsior. Gradually remove the mulch after the last hard frost so the tender shoots harden naturally.
When the bud stalks appear in May, which is about a month before those of the tall bearded varieties appear, feed with liquid fertilizer to help the plants gain strength for next year’s flowers.
Since you want flowers, not just foliage, a 3-12-12 fertilizer (or one suitable for potatoes) is better than one with a high nitrogen content. More fertilizer and another smaller application of lime should be worked in around the plants right after flowering.
Lift the plants about the first of July even if some green growth remains and set them in a coldframe. Or, simply set them in any sunny spot and cover with plastic wire glass, such as that frequently used in chicken houses.
Keep the plants bone dry during the summer and fall. Oneocyclus, even more than regelias, must have this hard baking to insure next spring’s flowers – indeed to survive.
By November or early December, some varieties will show new growth. It is then time to plunge the pots and begin the cycle once more.
Iris Varieties
One of the best oncocyclus is the mourning iris, Iris susiana. It is admired for its subtle. close-up beauty, with gray flowers heavily lined and speckled with dark purple and a striking black signal patch. As with all oncos, there is only one flower to a stem.
Iris HAYNEI has bright, light mulberry standards, crimson-black falls and a black signal patch.
Iris atropurpurea is the reddest of the oncos, not as heavily veined as Iris susiana.
Iris oratoria is expensive, hut many- think it the most beautiful of all iris, appearing as an orchid-pink globe, sometimes 7” or 8” inches in diameter. Crimson dots shade into a crimson-black signal patch. NICRICANS, dark violet-black, is sometimes called the black iris.
Among the striking regelias, which usually have two flowers to a stem, is Iris korolkowi, in several different colors.
Two of the best are KOROLKOWI PINK, a creamy pink with maroon veins and KOROLKOWI BROWN AND GREEN, silvery white merging to maroon with a brown beard on an olive-green and chocolate signal patch.
Iris hoogiana is a “must” in every collection of regelias. It is the truest blue of any iris, with near perfect form. A bright gold beard heightens the satiny color. A variety, I. hoogiana BRONZE BEAUTY, is bronze-lavender, wine red and cream.
The regelia hybrids are crosses M different regelia iris. One of these is LUCIA, wine red, with the bluest heard imaginable. Another, VULCANUS, is scarlet-bronze and crimson with a dark blue heard.
Of the onco-regelia hybrids, crosses of oncos and regelias, LUNA is outstanding. The deep blue-violet veining is so extensive it has the effect of a solid color. The signal patch is purplish black.
TEUCROS is lilac-pink, with dark pink veins and a maroon patch has standards of pale lavender, veined with purple. The fans are greenish silver and sport a maroon signal patch.
ANDROMACHE is silvery white and violet with a dark red crest. ARTEMIS, the richest and deepest of the onco-regelias, is silvery cream, veined dark carmine-violet, with a heavy black beard.
When these rare iris are grown in pots, they can be put to many uses. Place them on a porch or terrace for spring color; set them among the daffodils until annuals take over; lift them in March and bring into the house for early bloom.
And be sure to use some in flower arrangements. Try arils with bronzy tulips or use one striking regelia in a corsage. No matter where you use them, you’ll marvel each year at the unique and incomparable beauty of the onco and regelia iris.