Gardening : When the Iris Are in Bloom It’s a Call for Rich Colors : Plicatas: Thoughtful placement and interplanting can reap dazzling rewards with iris that’s available in seemingly limitless combination of colors.
From room-sized canvases depicting Monet’s magnificent garden at Giverny to snapshots of humble side yards in Garden Grove, one of the best reasons for expanding your garden’s palette may be plicata iris, the term applied to iris whose flouncy falls are ravishingly edged and speckled with color in rich contrast to the standards.
Or the entire flower--both standards and falls--may be boldly stitched against a pure-white or pastel-hued background. We are talking show-stopping stuff that requires thoughtful placement and interplanting for maximum appreciation.
With flowers that in both form and color could, to less adoring eyes, be labeled as a bit much, even gaudy, one should think twice before being swept away by the seemingly limitless color combinations available from top iris growers such as Schreiner’s Gardens in Salem, Ore.
“Plicatas are the cream puffs of the garden, very distinctive, very individual,” says Toni Amles, who grows white/yellow plicatas in blends from muted to flamboyant in gray stoneware pots on her Toluca Lake patio.
“Even working with only whites and yellows, I’m fascinated by all the hues and accents available,” she says, adding that as a floral centerpiece they “draw gasps” from her guests.
A Westlake Village curbside iris patch was this writer’s first exposure to plicatas. A rectangular clearing had been made in the sloping lawn to exclusively accommodate the homeowner’s passion for plicatas.
The unobtrusive expanse of green lawn proved a perfect foil. If anything, one plicata competed (yet did not clash) with the other to dazzle a passer’s-by eye. Because they were planted as an island unto themselves, however, there was nothing visually jarring in fitting these gorgeous flowers into an overall landscape they seasonally dominate.
Still, there can be a tendency toward overstatement in group plantings of mixed plicatas. Some of the most understated color combinations are, in fact, the loveliest. In particular, those plicatas of the freshest white having ruffled petals edged in royal purple or violet present a twist on the traditional--plus a flower whose color contrast is strikingly clean and elegant.
Schreiner’s offers quite a number of these, ranging from the simplicity of ‘Stitch in Time’ to the sumptuous ‘Jesse’s Song’ in the tall, bearded class; ‘Bold Print’ in the intermediate group, and ‘Petite Polka’ among the dwarf bearded iris.
Among their 1990 introductions is the floriferous plicata ‘Stardust Memories,’ with an orchid-like beauty and grace. Included in Flower & Garden magazine’s list of “New Plants for 1990” is the dreamy plicata ‘Sighs and Whispers’ which was developed at Mid-America Iris Gardens in Oklahoma City.
When carefully and creatively matched, these selections can be blended with white and/or purple selfs (iris of uniform color) or even complementary amoenas (white or tinted-white standards with colored falls) or bitones (two tones of the same color) to shimmering effect. They should be sited where they may singularly stand out, and not clash with other plantings. Raised beds on a lawn are a good showcase, as are a few clumps close to the entryway to a house.
John H. Weiler, president of the Reblooming Iris Society and a noted iris hybridizer at his Rialto Gardens in Fresno, singles out ‘Tension Ridge’ (“outstanding flower”) and ‘Queen Dorothy’ (“nearly an ever-bloomer”) as plicatas that are likely to bloom in spring then again in the fall (possibly even during summer) in Southern California gardens.
Iris are drought-tolerant, he notes, adding that some supplemental water is needed only to promote rebloom in varieties with this tendency (or where heat stress is evident). So plicata enthusiasts can double or even triple their pleasure by selecting varieties that have indicated this potential for encore performances.
Of course, once smitten, it is hard to resist ordering some of the showiest plicatas, such as ‘Caramba,’ described by the grower as “ . . . brilliant yellow . . . white . . . cyclamen purple and java brown . . . “ as if the catalogue illustration was not enticement enough.
Though new introductions tend to be expensive ($30 to $35 per rhizome), most pliata rhizomes are no more costly than a plain Jane purple self. It’s their opulent look that may feed our desire to give plicatas center stage, possibly overwhelming our otherwise sound aesthetic judgment in the process. So if the descriptions make your mouth water and head swim, think of the effect in your garden before plunging willynilly into plicatas.
