Types: Bearded Iris - Ornamental Plant Information from PlantsGalore.Com

Miniature Dwarf - Standard Dwarf - Intermediate - Miniature Tall - Border - Tall - Reblooming

Bearded iris have been cultivated since ancient times. The diversity of their coloring led to naming the genus for Iris, the Rainbow Goddess of ancient myth. These are the type that most people associate with the term "iris" since they are the most commonly grown.

In the terminology of the iris world, this genus is divided into two categories, the bearded ones also called pogon and the beardless types called apogon.

Bearded iris are those that have many tiny hairlike filaments on their falls (the droop sepals of the flowers). The colors of standard bearded irises range from snowy white through every conceivable shade, including yellow, orange, pink, red, blue, lavender, purple, brown and near black more often than not the standards and falls are of different colors. The height of standard bearded irises ranges from 3-40 inches or more, with flowers 1½ 8 inches wide.

Miniature Dwarf Bearded Iris

To qualify for this group of iris, the plant must get no taller than about 8 inches. The flowers are only about 1.5 to 3 inches wide and there is little, if any, branching of the flower stem. These are the first of the bearded iris to bloom in the spring. The species Iris pumila is commonly in the breeding of these small iris.

'Alpine Lake'

'Bantam'

'Betwixt'

'Broad Grin'

'Bugsy

'Gnuz Spread'

'Inner Fires'

'Libation'

'Sleepy Time'

'Snowy River'

'Zipper'

Rebloomer - 'Ditto'

Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris

Sometimes called liliputs, this class of iris grow to about 8 to 16 inches in height with 2-2.5 inch flowers. Stems may be branched or unbranched usually with 2 or 3 terminal buds. Their blooms appear at the same time as the latest daffodils and the earlier tulips. Colors range from white to ivory, lemon, gold, orange, green, tan or brown, pink and apricot from blue and orchid to magenta, purple or reddish black, with contrasting beards in all sorts of line markings.

The season of bloom is after the Miniature Dwarf Bearded Iris and before the Standard Dwarf Bearded Iris.

'Bay Ruffles'

'Bedford Lilac'

'Chances'

'Chubby Cheeks'

'Gemstar'

'Ice and Indigo Blue'

'Jazzamatazz'

'Minidragon'

'Pele'

'Serenity Prayer'

'Violet Lulu'

Rebloomers

'Baby Blessed'

'Darling'

'Jewel Baby'

'Little Showoff'

'Plum Wine'

'Refined'

'Sun Doll'

Intermediate Bearded Iris

Ranging in height from 15 to 28 inches, these iris bear flowers that measure 3.5-5 inches in width. They bloom slightly later than the miniature dwarf irises. Some of the cultivars will rebloom in September or October so are sometimes called fall or autumn blooming iris.

'Albicans'

'Alien'

'All Clear'

'Arctic Flare'

'Arctic Ruffle'

'Ask Alma'

'Baby Blue Marine'

'Barbi'

'Black Hawk'

'Blue Eyed Blond'

'Cee Jay'

'Cloud Fluff'

'Dilly Dilly'

'Eleanor Roosevelt'

'Kochii'

'Germanica'

'Honest Glazed'

'First Lilac'

'Florentina'

'Frosted Cups'

'Galaxy'

'Gypsy Flair'

'Lemon Pop'

'Lime Ripples'

'Little Angel'

'Maroon Caper'

'Maui Moonlight'

'Pink Fancy'

'Pink Pride'

'Protocol'

'Rare Edition'

'Red Zinger'

'Ruby Glow'

'Sangreal'

'Southland'

'Sugar'

'Vanilla Ice'

'White Autumn King'

'Zua'

Rebloomers

'Blessed Again'

'I Bless'

'Low Ho Silver'

'Precious Little Pink'

Miniature Tall Bearded Iris

Also known as table iris or bouquet iris, the plants in this group grow to 18 to 26 inches in height and have flowers about 2.5 inches wide. Generally, these are diploid types and they bloom at the same time as the tall bearded iris. They do not have the traits of the more modern triploid iris. The flowers are often used for cut flowers and they maintain a touch of the "wild" iris appeal.

These iris are slender, wiry with flexous flower stalks about 1/8 to 2/16 of an inch in diameter. They widen to about 5/8 of an inch at the base of the stem.

'Apricot Drops'

'Bumblebee Delight'

'Chickadee'

'Disco Jewel'

'Frosted Velvet'

'In Fashion'

'Jolly Jim'

'Paltec'

'Petite Monet'

'Playboy'

'Rosemary's Dream'

'Tom Tit'

'Warbler'

'White Pewee'

'Widge'

Border Bearded Iris

These iris are the about the same height as the intermediate and miniature tall bearded iris, reaching a height of 16 to 28 inches. The differences are that these iris bloom at the same time as the tall bearded types and they have blooms up to 5 inches in diameter. If they had larger blooms, they would be hard to distinguish from tall bearded iris.

They have the same cultural requirements as their larger cousins and are often used together with similarly colored bearded iris to form a contrast of colors.

'Baboon Bottom'

'Blue Miller'

'Brown Lasso'

'Calico Kid'

'Columbine'

'Cranapple'

'Debbie Ann'

'Ellen Q'

'Fluff'

'Frenchi'

'Gay Hussar'

'Glacier Bay'

'Little Reb'

'Little Lynn'

'Little Brother'

'Little Dude'

'Lyrique'

'Maui Magic'

'Pagoda'

'Pink Bubbles'

'Pink Ruffles'

'Sunspinner'

'Tulare'

'Yellow Dresden'

Rebloomers

'Double Up'

'Ultra Echo'

Tall Bearded Iris

This is what most people think of when they hear the word, iris. The cultivar 'Germanica' was once considered the archetype of the tall bearded iris and resulted in the common name of “German Iris”.

Plants in this group grow to more than 28 inches tall (up to 40 inches or more), have 4-8 inch flowers all three types blossom from late spring to early summer. Blooms should be considerably larger than those of the Border Bearded and Intermediate Bearded irises. Typically they bloom later than most of the smaller bearded irises.

'Before the Storm'

'Beverly Sills'

'Conjuration'

'Dusky Challenger'

'Edith Wolford'

'Hello Darkness'

'Honky Tonk Blues'

'Jesse's Song'

'Lady Friend'

'Silverado'

'Stairway to Heaven'

'Stepping Out'

'Thornbird'

'Titan's Glory'

'Vanity'

Rebloomers:

'Belvi Queen'

'Clarence'

'Eternal Bliss'

'Feed Back'

'Immortality'

'Pink Attraction'

'Queen Dorothy'

Reblooming Bearded Iris

Most flowering perennials, including iris, have a primary blooming season where they put on their biggest and best display. However, certain Iris species - Iris are noted for the ability to often (but not always) put on a second round of flowers in August through October.

So far, cultivars that will regularly bloom twice have not been found. Here is a list of cultivars that have a high chance of reblooming:

'Autumn Flame'

'Autumn Snowdrift'

'Autumn Sunset'

'Gibson Girl'

'Martie Everest'

'Polar King'



I. aphylla	Stool Iris	15"	5	purple, beard white	May	Eastern Europe
I. chamneiris	Crimean Iris		5	blue, red-purple, yellow or white - 2 flowers on a spathe	April - May	Northern Italy
I. mellita	Tread Iris		5	related to I. pumila flowers are fragrant, pale smoky brown with red-brown veins. The beard is white, tipped with blue.	April -May	Southern Europe
I. pseudo-pumila	Tineo Iris	4-6"	5	purple, yellow or white		Southern Italy


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