Monday, April 20, 2015

Louisiana Iris

Ann Chowning

Louisiana Iris begin blooming late march for about 30 - 40 days if you have several colors, as each color blooms at a slightly different time.

Colors range from many hundreds of imaginative combinations and shades of each - a violet red, purple, violet, blue, white, yellow, a very dark almost black purple. They look especially, mysteriously beautiful in the low light levels of early morning or late evenings and rainy days.

They grow well in pots, especially big ones and tubs as some varieties multiply quickly. Plant them in humus rich, well composted well drained soil of the shrub border garden, or in 1 to 6 inches of fresh water along ponds, ditches, and marshes.

It will come to me

 Make sure the "roots only" are in the soil, and the rhizome is at ground level, where it can breath. This probably will require staking the plant cut back to about half. As the spring becomes summer, plants go dormant, become a little shabby at times in the heat, so don't worry it's not dying, it will get green again in fall and winter, here in the south.
Eolian

Her Highness


Louisiana Iris perform their best in natural lowlands where a slowing of water velocity causes nutrient rich silts to settle along with the winters shed leaves, the organic matter from fields and pastures in upper regions.

This is the native environment of one of the last of the fresh water plants before the water flow meets the salt of the  Ocean.

These are some older favorites I've grown for most of my life, a couple of which I collected from the marshes in South Louisiana while fishing. I can only load four images it seems, so I'll post several times.

Black Gamecock