Find Your Local Florist:Everything you want to know about flowers!
Ask the Expert: can you identify this flower?
Hi —
We live in southern Wisconsin, and built a home four years ago on what once was a pasture for cattle and hogs.
This flower has been here since we moved in — the leaves looked like iris leaves, but the plant never boomed –so I planted other things around it and started to care for the plant.
Now it’s just about to bloom, but I don’t know what it is!
Any clues? Wendy
Pictures added by Wendy
Ask the Expert: Iris identification
Years ago someone gave me a start of this iris and I would like to know the name. Maybe Frank Adams variety but I’m not sure since so many look the same. I would really appreciate an opinion. Debra I have attached pictures below.
Ask the Expert: Why wont my Iris bloom?
My Iris’ get great green leaves but I fail to get a bud, which in turn I don’t get a bloom?
Mary Ann
Ask the Expert: What kind of iris is this?
This house has been in my family for about nine years and this is the FIRST time this plant has bloomed. I believe it’s an iris, but after looking at several pictures, I can’t figure out what kind of iris. Can anyone help me out? Do they always take years and years to bloom? There are others there but the green is only about three inches tall… the same height as nine years ago…
Amy,
From the look of this picture you have a Siberian (beardless) iris which is a rhizomatous type of iris. Although it is a little early for Siberian irises to bloom, it could be a variety called ‘White Swirl’. The only other option I can think of is that it is a Reticulata (Dutch iris) which is a bulbous iris.
Rhizomatous iris have rhizomes as rootstock that are close to the surface of the soil. Bulbous iris have bulbs as storage organs which are plant below the surface of the ground. Siberian iris reach a height between 18″ to 48″ – Dutch iris reach a height of 6″. Knowing this may help you decide which type of iris you have.
As for lack of blooming, if the soil level is completely covering the iris’ rhizome blooming can be inhibited. Lack of proper nutrition and environmental conditions can also inhibit blooming. Although iris can be found in rock gardens, they may not like the pea gravel bed. You might try a fertilizer that is higher in phosphorus than it is in nitrogen. Too much nitrogen can also inhibit blooming.
It’s late afternoon on July 3rd and I realized tomorrow is the 4th of July. July is the best month of the year. The country and I celebrate our birthdays this month. Every year, I celebrate the 4th of July with flowers — red, white and blue. This flower arrangement is to remind me that the 4th of July is more than fireworks and barbecue. It is a celebration of a great country and the people who made it “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. This year, my arrangement will be red gerberas, blue iris and white gladiolus. The meanings of these flowers is what the country represents to me.
