I love serendipitous plants\u2014those crafty covert operatives of the horticultural world that seem to spring up unbidden and surprise you with their beautiful flowers.\u00a0 Not long ago a friend had a serendipitous experience with nodding star of Bethlehem or Ornithogalum nutans.\u00a0 Touring her garden one day, she caught it in the act of showing off its elegant, pale green and white striped flowers in a garden corner.\u00a0 She hadn\u2019t planted it, but, as stars of Bethlehem are wont to do, it had taken up residence anyway.\u00a0 Luckily for the nodding star, my friend was enchanted.<\/p>\n
My own most recent bout of serendipity happened with a dwarf crested iris\u2014Iris cristata– that had been lurking for nearly a year at the base of a new lilac bush.\u00a0 Since I purchased and planted the iris, the whole experience wasn\u2019t as dramatic as my friend\u2019s, but the little flowers still surprised me.\u00a0 I had grown accustomed to seeing the circle of sword-shaped leaves and thought occasionally that the plant was spreading awfully quickly for something that was yet to pop a single bloom.\u00a0 Still, most of the time I focused on the flashier plants, taking largely undeserved pride in the big clumps of daffodils and the impressive size of the tree peony growing only about eight feet from the crested iris.<\/p>\n
Last week I came home one day and there they were\u2014three perfect, diminutive iris blooms staring at me from beside the lilac bush.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t noticed the buds, which, typical of most iris, remained as tightly furled as an expensive umbrella until they opened.<\/p>\n
Crested iris are an American original, hailing from the southeastern quadrant of the United States.\u00a0 They are a woodland plant and crave the kind of shady situations present at the edges of wooded areas.\u00a0 Growing between six to twelve inches tall, they sprout from rhizomes or fleshy roots, just like their statuesque German or bearded iris relatives.\u00a0 The flower structure is similar as well, with three slender petals or standards and three larger, droopier petals, known as \u201cfalls\u201d.\u00a0 The falls feature golden fuzzy \u201cbeards\u201d.\u00a0 The petals on my serendipitous crested iris are pale blue, with white central \u201ccrests\u201d surrounding beards that are outlined in darker blue. \u00a0Though the plant tag has long since disappeared, my iris looks very similar to a cultivar called \u2018Vein Mountain\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0Depending on the variety, crested iris petals may be white or shades of blue-purple or purple, all with the characteristic gold-centered crest.<\/p>\n
People who live with shady garden spaces frequently complain about their inability to grow flowers.\u00a0 This is generally because they surrender to the urge to define themselves and their gardens by what won\u2019t grow rather than what will grow easily.\u00a0 Crested iris falls into the latter category, requiring absolutely nothing once it is watered in and established.\u00a0 Now is a good time to plant the rhizomes, making sure that they are barely covered with soil.\u00a0 If the weather is dry, water regularly until the iris are settled in.\u00a0 Next spring you will most likely have plenty of blooms just slightly before the larger iris show their petals.<\/p>\n
These smaller iris are especially well-suited to growing on shady embankments, either steep or small.\u00a0 Shady rock gardens are also good sites. All the colors are complementary, so you can mix up varieties to create a crested iris tapestry.\u00a0 I am partial to the large, light blue-purple flowers of \u2018Powder Blue Giant\u2019.\u00a0 For those who must have an all-white garden or need a bright accent, pick \u2018Montrose White\u2019.<\/p>\n
Allegedly deer-proof, like other members of the iris clan, the crested varieties make good companions for a number of shade lovers.\u00a0 Plant them at the feet of shrubs, as I have, or intermingle them with varieties of epimediums or \u201cmourning widow\u201d geranium\u2014Geranium phaeum\u2014for a carpet effect.\u00a0 They might also front for taller, later blooming shade lovers like bears\u2019 breeches\u2014Acanthus mollis\u2014or monkshood, also known as Aconitum.<\/p>\n
If your crested iris are happy, you will want to keep them that way by dividing them every few years.\u00a0 This is very easy.\u00a0 Dig up the entire clump, brush off excess soil, cut away any dead rhizomes and separate the clump so that each piece has a healthy number of attached roots.\u00a0 Replant in sites with the same light and soil conditions and you will be on\u00a0 your way to creating the kind of repetition of horticultural elements that makes garden designers swoon.<\/p>\n
In spring, larger nurseries and garden centers may stock crested iris.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t find them locally, try Plant Delights Nursery, 9241 Sauls Road, Raleigh, NC; 919-772-4794; www.plantdelightsnursery<\/a>.\u00a0 For a printed catalog, send $7.00, which will be used as a credit towards your first order.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love serendipitous plants\u2014those crafty covert operatives of the horticultural world that seem to spring up unbidden and surprise you with their beautiful flowers.\u00a0 Not long ago a friend had a serendipitous experience with nodding star of Bethlehem or Ornithogalum nutans.\u00a0 Touring her garden one day, she caught it in the act of showing off … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3],"tags":[1406,257,1405,1408,1407,126],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-crested-iris","tag-deer-resistant-plants","tag-iris-cristata","tag-miniature-iris","tag-native-iris","tag-shade-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1884,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions\/1884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}