With All the Colors Available, Why Select a White Iris?

When you are selecting irises for your garden, you can peruse an iris catalog filled with brilliantly colored blooms, walk among the plants at a reliable nursery, attend an iris show, or even frequent the Iris Forum on ATP and make your plans to buy irises in exotic color patterns and beautiful blooms. You may have a favorite color or you may be drawn to either subtle brown/green blends or bright jewel tones or, like some gardeners, have the need to plant the rainbow.

Whatever you choose, you must consider adding an iris of no color. You must consider adding a white iris. It does not have to be laced, or ruffled, or even a particularly large blooming one. It should be one that makes a good clump, is a reliable bloomer, and preferably has a long bloom season. If you have a large iris garden or an iris garden in several places, you will need to choose more than one or be sure you have enough to make plantings in each iris bed. It does not matter if you plant irises with like colors together or alternate light with dark. By planting white irises in your bed, you will be "cleansing the palate," so to speak. You will be giving each color a foil to play against. Your pale yellow iris will not look like a washed-out white one when it is growing by a truly white iris, and your lovely dark irises will only look more saturated with color in comparison with the white one. And the white one will glow and be beautiful in its own right.

When you are choosing a white iris, remember your reason for doing so. It will be tempting to choose an almost white one, or a white one with a lot of color on it, and although these are wonderful irises for your garden, you must select one with enough pure white on it to complement the more colorful irises planted around it.

One other thing a white iris does for your garden is glow across an expanse of space, inviting visitors to come down the path and marvel at the rainbow.