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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

My eyes have been opened to a new possibility!!

This is incredible! In my last post I asked what this particular plant was...and it turned out to be an Iris. Well, of course, I had HEARD of Iris before, but had I ever SEEN one before??? Probably in the recesses of my brain, I must have seen one...but wow...I am blown away that #1...I found one growing in south Florida, and #2...now that I have researched them a bit, I find that most are hardy to zone 10 (which is my zone). I should add #3...that I am so surprised I do not see more of these around here. They grow in partial to full sun, and like a well draining soil. Hmmm...sounds like the sand we live with here, could be pretty conducive to Iris growth!

BLACK DRAGON
Now I am on a mission to find me some plants! I normally am not attracted to to many flower blooms, and never have appreciated orchids, but there is something about these flower that I like. I have even found a few varieties that bloom in both spring and fall, which would be double the fun!!!

DRACULAS KISS
I am particularly attracted to the idea of having some of the ones with black blooms (I may need to order online). Nice for a dark garden. I believe some of you may have a garden with all black or near-black blooms. There are many to choose from in black.

MIDNIGHT OIL
A huge resource, is Schreiners Gardens...and I have a few pics of some of the dark iris' they have for sale! I ordered their free catalog! I am so excited about these gorgeous plants! Enjoy the photos, and note the really awesome names!!!

9 comments:

Steve Asbell said...

There are a bunch of native blue flag iris's that grow here in florida... the prettiest ones I've seen were at corkscrew swamp near Ft. Myers!

Bobbie Lynn said...

Irises are very pretty and they come in beautiful colors of purple. You do not need to buy a lot them because they propagate fast. They look great in containers and I have friend that has some in a flower bed and they look beautiful right now.

Darla said...

Looks like someone is on a mission now!

Teri said...

Those dark-colored iris are so dramatic. It surprises me that you have not heard of them-they are like weeds in Wisconsin, well, maybe that is an exaggeration. teehee. but they grow all over.

Aaerelon said...

I'm surprised you never heard of them before. We have them growing naturally (purple and yellow) in ditches and wetlands here. You also see white, purple, and pink ones everywhere in flower beds.

I haven't seen very many black ones but they are really nice. Good luck with your search!

Diane AZ said...

Wow, those black irises look so unusual and I like the spooky names!

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I didn't know irises would grow so far south. They are one of my favorite plants. I can't wait to see what you get.

Claude said...

My last post, of the cemetary, had lots of pics of iris... they're fairly easy to grow in the south, but the process is very different from the advice you get from most of the gardening books, that all seem to be written by people in Conneticut.

Iris breeders have been trying to get a truly black iris for years... mostly they come up with dark blues and purples with a gothic name. I have "Superstition" which is deep cobalt blue and "Black Magic" which is the darker of the two, and deep deep purple.

Texas summers are a little too harsh to allow for the second fall bloom, (the plants are called re-bloomers usually)

Anonymous said...

LOL. I should've guessed that you were going to be tempted by the black irises. I've got pics of mine on my blog, not as dark as these but close.

If the Iris borers don't get all of mine, I'd be happy to send you a piece of one of mine. A small piece would probably grow light gangbusters in your climate.

Do a search for black iris on my blog to take a look at it if you're interested.