{"id":2744,"date":"2019-05-28T07:29:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T15:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2744"},"modified":"2019-05-28T07:29:08","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T15:29:08","slug":"flying-the-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/flying-the-flags\/","title":{"rendered":"Flying the Flags"},"content":{"rendered":"

My county has some of the loveliest public parks around, with long, winding roads, beautiful trees and winsome water features.\u00a0 The paths through these parks are among my favorite walking routes.\u00a0 I was out walking not long ago and spotted a clump of yellow flag iris or Iris pseudacorus on the edge of a large, man-made pond.\u00a0 The plants were perfectly positioned, leaning out from the bank so that the golden yellow flower petals were reflected in the water.\u00a0 Clearly the clump of yellow flag was waiting for Monet, or someone like him, to come and immortalize it.<\/p>\n

May is iris time, when iris of all types\u2014slender Siberians, statuesque \u201cGerman\u201d or garden specimens, and the wonderful Iris pallida, with its striped leaves and pale blue flowers\u2014all come into bloom. \u00a0The yellow flag iris was right on schedule.<\/p>\n

Yellow flags are tall, rising between three and five feet, and slender.\u00a0 Their long, blue-green leaves are erect and pointed at the tips.\u00a0 When the flowers form, they sit atop the stalks, each one with three upward-facing petals or \u201cstandards\u201d, and three downward-facing petals or \u201cfalls\u201d.\u00a0 Unlike some iris, the pseudacorus species does not have \u201cbeards\u201d or fuzzy areas on the falls.\u00a0 Instead, yellow flag sports attractive brownish veins on the petals.<\/p>\n

Despite its uncommon beauty, yellow flag iris is relatively common in the United States and Canada.\u00a0 It is an immigrant, native to Eurasia and northern Africa, and has been known and cultivated for centuries.\u00a0 According to legend, yellow flag was the original model for the fleur de lis, which became the emblem of the French monarchy.\u00a0 The iris crossed the pond early and caught on with plant lovers.\u00a0 Thomas Jefferson was growing it in 1767.\u00a0 Observant gardener that he was, Jefferson probably noticed the iris\u2019 uncommon vigor.\u00a0 Plants that are situated in congenial conditions, which include sun to part shade and consistently moist soil, will spread quickly by way of underground rhizomes.\u00a0 The flowers also give way to large pods filled with seeds that can float easily in running water, sometimes for long periods, finally coming to rest on a patch of ground and germinating far from the mother plant.<\/p>\n

Yellow flag is one of those \u201cgood news, bad news\u201d species.\u00a0 In addition to being beautiful and hardy, its roots can absorb metals and may be able to remove heavy metals from wastewater.\u00a0 Massed on a slope, yellow flag also prevents erosion.\u00a0 Though the rhizomes are poisonous, nineteenth century scientists found that the roasted seeds could be used to produce an acceptable coffee substitute.<\/p>\n

What made them try such a thing?\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 I would not recommend attempting to duplicate their experiments.<\/p>\n

The bad news about yellow flag is that it is invasive in many parts of the United States, especially in the Northeast, Upper Midwest and Far West.\u00a0 When it grows by natural streams, lakes or rivers, it can form very large clumps, outcompeting native plants and even choking narrow waterways.<\/p>\n

So while I love looking at the yellow flag iris in my local park, I will not try it at home.\u00a0 I will plant its relative, blue flag iris, the name given to plants of several similar native species found throughout the United States.\u00a0 In my part of the world, the most common blue flag is Iris versicolor, which boasts the same slender, elegant profile as yellow flag, without its invasive ways.\u00a0\u00a0 Its parts are also somewhat toxic, which means that deer and other varmints avoid blue flag like the plague.<\/p>\n

So if you have a damp spot on your property, or, better yet, a stream or water feature, run away from yellow flag iris and directly to blue flag iris.\u00a0 You can order plants from native plant vendor, New Moon Nursery, 910 Kings Highway Woodstown, NJ 08098; (888)-998-1951<\/a>; www.newmoonnursery.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Note that New Moon cannot ship to AK, AZ, CA, CO,\u00a0ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, TX,\u00a0WA, WY, or Canada.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong>In those areas, contact local native plant societies for in-state vendors.\"Yellow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My county has some of the loveliest public parks around, with long, winding roads, beautiful trees and winsome water features.\u00a0 The paths through these parks are among my favorite walking routes.\u00a0 I was out walking not long ago and spotted a clump of yellow flag iris or Iris pseudacorus on the edge of a large, … 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":[2109,154,2110,2111,448,2112,2108],"class_list":["post-2744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-blue-flag-iris","tag-invasive-plants","tag-iris-pseudacorus","tag-iris-versicolor","tag-native-plants","tag-water-plants","tag-yellow-flag-iris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744","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=2744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2746,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744\/revisions\/2746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}