Irises for the South

Find the right plant for your conditions and target season of interest in this diverse genus

Iris ( Irisspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–10 ) blooms are like big butterflies floating in the garden . They are so attractive that every garden should have at least one specie , and there are so many different types that there is one for just about every spot in the garden . Fortunately , they are surprisingly bad . Here are some of our favorite irises for the South .

Bearded iris

I. germanica , Zones 3–10

Bright , sunny area of the garden without superfluous moisture are great for most irises but particularly for whiskered irises . They come in lot of vividness and wait groovy in repeated moulding since they have evergreen leafage in our region . Reblooming miscellanea are becoming more democratic , and in our part of the South this usually means flowers in April and then again in midsummer .

Bamboo iris

I. confusa , geographical zone 6–11

A funny , ironical pip is great for bamboo iris . An other spring bloomer , this iris diaphragm can spread into quite a dependency . In very cold winters , it can be damage , but it always does an admirable job of recover . It does best under evergreen , trees which take up any surplus water and provide tad most of the day .

Roof iris

I. tectorum , zone 4–9

Another shade lover is roof iris . This delightful sword lily is lily-white or lavender - blue and blooms in midspring here in our Zone 8 garden . Roof iris forms good - size colonies in a comparatively short period of prison term . It will grow in sun , but the foliage will look stress and the plant wo n’t expand . In shade , the soft foliage is very attractive , and the plant earn for a expert ground cover .

Crested iris

I. crisata , Zones 3–8

Crested iris , native to our sphere , is a swell ground cover for shade . The beautiful pale blue to white-hot bloom appear early in spring and only last a few daytime but are fantastic to behold . The foliage is short and make a wondrous deciduous priming coat cover in the shade garden . Moist filth is a summation , although this bad piffling grower is very drought large-minded .

Japanese iris

I. ensata , Zones 3–9

Japanese iris have intercourse sun . The bombastic , somewhat flat flowers are dramatic . It is not fans of shade or dry soil but will grow in a broad variety of soil eccentric , from moist to submerge . The tall leafage is attractive on its own and wafture in the wind . The cultivar with vary leafage , ‘ Variegata ’ , is jazzy on its own , but when the dark empurpled flowers appear in belated spring , it ’s impress .

Louisiana iris

I. brevicaulisand cvs . , Zones 4–8

Another water - tolerant fleur-de-lis is Louisiana iris , which is really a group of several species all of which are great garden plants . Willing to grow in a perennial layer or in standing urine , these plants are tough . Flowering well in full Dominicus , they wo n’t countenance refinement stop them from frame on a show . Some of these species can be a niggling enthusiastic in their outgrowth wont , such as icteric signal flag ( I. pseudacorus , Zones 5–9 ) , which may be invasive in select parts of the South . But when this radical of plant bloom , it seems worth the problem .

Blackberry lily

I. domestica , Zones 5–10

Blackberry lily is so much fun . Orange - spotted flowers blooming in clustering seem in former summertime . Deadheading keeps them blooming , but the seedpods they get their name from are almost as nice as the flowers . Perfect in mixed seam , the plants are not long - lived perennial , but they do reseed extravagantly . This iris like very just drainage in our part of the earth .

— Jason and Shelley Powell own and get by petal from the Past , a garden center in Jemison , Alabama .

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