Iris Juncea by Michael Foster

Gardeners' Chronicles p 53, July 9, 1881

Transcript:

Iris juncea (Xiphion junceum).— In their admirable display at the Royal Horticultural Society's show last week Messrs. Barr & Sugden hardly did justice to the blooms which they exhibited of this fine plant. To my mind it is the choicest of the summer-blooming bulbous Irises. The Spanish Irises (Iris xiphion, Xiphion vulgare) have a stiftness and formality which goes far to spoil the beauty of their colouring, while the English Irises (Iris xiphioides, Xiphion latifolium), especially the garden varieties, are somewhat straggling and delight to sport unwholesome-looking blotches. The lines of this Rush-leaved Iris, on the other hand, are full of tender grace and beauty, and its rich yellow tint is almost perfection. My wife the other day married a few of its golden blooms to a spike or two of a late-flowering lilac-coloured member of the spuria group of Irises (which I have not yet succeeded in exactly identifying), and the result was exceedingly charming. Iris juncea, moreover, has a pleasing fragrance denied to the Spanish arid English Irises. I am not aware of any difficulties in cultivating it, and it certainly ought to be grown more freely than it appears to be. M. F.

For more information on historic Irises visit the Historic Iris Preservation Society at http://www.historiciris.org/

-- BobPries - 2015-07-26