Iris confusa

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Just when I think I’ve run out of things in the garden to take a photo of I look off to a dark corner and see a little splotch of white, about the size of a toonie.

Better known as the Bamboo Iris, this was a purchase I made at the UBC plant sale about 7 years ago, and I have never come across the plant at any plant sale ever again. It’s one of the most orchid-like irises I’ve ever grown. It has some resemblance to a Siberian iris where the flower is concerned, although it has more of a ruffle, but the foliage and the manner in which the flower buds are held is so completely different from any other iris I’ve ever seen.

Irises hold a special place in my heart; Mom loved them so maybe that spilled over on to me. She always said that, if you planned it right, you could have a garden that had some form of iris blooming almost all season. I haven’t been that lucky and although I had about six types of irises growing exceptionally well back at the condo, I still struggle with them where we live now.

I wish I could find another one of these, because mine did exceptionally well for two years and then a cold winter just took a round out of it and it’s never quite recovered. It’s a semi-hardy evergreen, but that doesn’t really hold true when the temperature drops below -10C for a week or more at a time.

I really should dig it out and put it into a pot that I can bring into the garage when the winter temperatures go down below -5C and maybe it will come back to its former splendour.

I just have to remember to do it when fall rolls around and the bleeding hearts, that surround its base like a cloud, die back.

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