Bearded Iris Raised Beds Plan for 2014

Iris Bed #1.  Mostly historic varieties.

Iris Bed #2.  Mostly historic varieties.

 As with the kitchen garden beds, all of these are subject to change, including at whim.

Plus, these maps don't include the other bulbs, anemones, tiny ginkgo starts, and Chinese chives that I've planted in these beds.

These drawings include additions and subtractions planned for April, with 7 new plus 2 additional from Old House Gardens.  The 2 additional are on order to extend the Honorable and Flavescens, which didn't do well in 2013 but I like both.

Looking at them now, if I trade out Red Zinger and Red Hawk into bed #3, then Bed #1 will be entirely historic varieties.  I could replace Red Hawk with a tall variety, such as Immortality or Frost and Flame, and replace Red Hawk with a shorter variety, such as Mrs. George Darwin. 

Those trades would be after bloom season.

Then for bed #2, trade out Sunny Disposition for Accent, Los Coyotes for Immortality, and Owyhee Desert for Dauntless.
 

Iris Bed #3.  Mostly modern varieties

I'll have to see what that does with the colors. 

Another thought is eventually have one bed with the oldest historics, one with more recent ones, and one with moderns.  It's almost headed that way anyway.  Sort of.

That may be putting too much thought into it.  Plus the older ones don't have the color diversity of newer ones.

I already planned for next summer's addition, mainly Beverly Sills, a historic with vigor, fragrance, and clear flamingo pink.   Maybe also Amigo.  Depending on how I feel about Diety, that could go to the hedge row.  Romeo doesn't amount to much, so ditto.  The extra Edith Wolford bunch would be nice in the front yard.  Then I could move California Blue to Bed #2, and move a couple of favorite bunches from home to Bed #3.

Most will look much better when established as larger bunches, which may take a couple more years.

If I had to do it over, I would probably have ordered multiple rhizomes of some, to establish them faster.