Bearded

<img src="uploads/tinybear.gif" border=0 align="middle">Bearded

For the bearded (Pogon) section, choose a well-drained spot in full sun. Do not expect flowering to be as good in even light shade.

Limey soil is marginally better than acid soil, but this is often more to do with drainage than any actual need for lime and they are very tolerant.

Plant with the rhizomes only just below the soil surface, to aid ripening. After planting leave them alone to establish, clump and spread, lifting only to clean out old dead rhizomes and split up.

The species that we offer are all hardy with us in the UK, as well as in the Netherlands and Germany. Remarkably, this includes the Arabian I. albicans.



Available for ordering from Spring and Autumn lists.

Iris albicans

AH.9170 Iris albicans

Two different species use this name; the commoner is just a white form of Iris germanica, widespread in the Mediterranean. This is widely available in the horticultural trade under the name of albicans, but it is not true to name.

True Iris albicans which we are offering here occurs only in Arabia and Yemen.

It is some 60cm tall, with greyish leaves and one to three, strongly and sweetly scented, 9cm flowers. The petals are pure, bone-white. The bracts are pale green. (The commoner interloper is found across the Mediterranean basin and is not entitled to the name, which continues in use however. The wrongly named albicans, has brown, papery bracts, and off-white flowers).

Our stock was first found near Sana’a, Yemen and is thriving here, outside, in a sunny, raised bed.

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Iris albicansirialbica £7.00
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Iris attica

JJA.0583900 Iris attica

This is raised from Jim Archibald’s seed and he describes this as the dwarfest bearded Iris. Ideal for an alpine-house pan with annual repotting.

The seed apparently came mainly from pale yellow forms with some blues and purples. However all that we have flowered are yellow, as illustrated. I cannot discount that blues will appear, its just that we have not seen any yet!

Flowering sized plants.

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Iris atticairiattatt £5.50
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Iris cengialti

This is varyingly regarded as a subspecies of true pallida and a valid species in its own right. It is the likely ancestor both of germanica of gardens and also the strain of pallida cultivated in the past in the perfume industry (which is a sterile form).

Large, deep purple flowers with the standards and falls of the same rich colouring. The falls have a prominent, bright, chrome-yellow beard. This is fully fertile (unlike 'pallida') and is a tall and vigorous plant.

Reliable to flower and easily grown in a well drained, fertile loam, in full sun and hardy certainly to 0°C.

The geographical range of this plant is limited to parts of N.E.Italy and adjacent Slovenia.

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Iris cengialtiiricencen £8.50
Cultivated, propagated, flowering sized divisions.
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