Leonie is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic gardener she is the minutes secretary to the Black Pear Gardening Club. I have invited her as guest publisher for this seasonally appropriate article she wrote for the club newsletter.
IRIS UNGUICULARIS.
One of my favourite plants at this time of year is IRIS UNGUICULARIS (I.stylosa) Algerian Iris.
This lovely flower is native to Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey , Greece and Syria where it grows in light scrub,open pine woods and rocky places.
It flowers from late autumn to early spring when so few plants are in flower. The flowers are beautifully scented, in shades of lavender to deep violet with a yellow throat.
This winter flowering Iris is easy to grow in well drained soil in full sun. Plant near a wall to help maintain the soils heat. I grow it in a raised bed that’s in full sunlight for most of the day, but that said I also grow it in a woodland area in partial sunlight and it is still happy but doesn’t flower quite so well. It is also useful to grow at the base of clematis as they like their heads in the sun and their roots in shade and it helps to hide the bare base of the clematis and keep its roots cool.
Plant it so that the rhizomes are just below the surface of the soil and 10cm (4in) apart.
It produces an evergreen mound of narrow, arching grass like foliage. This foliage does become brown and bit untidy but can easily be trimmed back to keep it looking good.
A top dressing of bone meal or potash in either autumn or spring is beneficial but look out for snails hiding among the leaves.
It dislikes being moved, but if you have to disturb it do it in spring after flowering. It may sulk for a while before it starts to flower again.
This is a long lived plant. I grow the species variety from divisions taken off my mother’s plant that has been growing in her garden for probably fifty years.
Two other very nice named varieties are ‘Mary Barnard’ which has a lovely velvety blue-purple flower, a much more intense colour than the species.
‘Mary Barnard’
Also, ‘Walter Butt’ a ghostly pale grey-blue , but with a heavenly scent.
‘Walter Butt’
Flowering: November-March
Hardiness: Fully hardy
Height: 30-45cm
Did you Know : Iris was a Greek goddess, the personification of the rainbow, which she used as her pathway though the sky.
In August 2019 Irene and I were invited to a family event near Lincoln, this provided the perfect opportunity to visit a garden that has long been on my wish list ever since reading about their technique for growing Bearded Iris. Sadly when we visited the iris were over, however, as with all good gardens, there was much else to admire. We have many bearded Iris in the garden, several inherited from my Mother and Great Aunts’ gardens. Bearded iris have beautiful delicate, often fleeting flowers, due to our weather, which can make them even more precious.
Bearded Iris has fallen out of favour due largely to the traditional way of caring for them, with the need to lift and thin them, in the autumn, every three to four years. The “Doddington system” is a trouble-free way to divide them, requiring minimum attention. Some of their older iris have been in the same beds for over 30 years.
Their system is based on the fact that bearded iris set their flower initials in August and require the rhizomes to be warmed by the summer sun.
The iris are split every year after flowering in June, just as the new leaves start to grow. The iris are not lifted but split with a spade, leaving the healthy young rhizome with shoots, whilst removing the old rhizome. the aim is to leave 9-12″ between plants. Then you remove the early summer leaves and flower stems leaving the new late summer leaves. They topdress the bed with bone meal.
Large rhizomes can be divided with the spade with one part lifted to transplant, either to fill a gap, expand the bed or pot up to sell on open garden days.
I have been using this system since 2014, I was initially attracted because it entailed much less bending, having had a back problem for some years.
Bearded iris in Our Garden@19
I. pallida subsp. pallida
Unknown
I.Alcazar
I. ‘Ola Kala’
I.Gudrun
Another interesting fact with Doddington is they contain the Bryan Dodsworth iris collection. He was the most celebrated C20 British breeder of Tall Bearded Iris and was awarded the Dykes Medal for new varieties 12 times.
“For many, the Gardens at Doddington are just as spectacular as the Hall itself. Remaining faithful to the original Elizabethan layout, mellow walls provide the framework for the formal East Front and West Gardens. Beyond the West Gardens begin the lovingly restored Wild Gardens. Over the generations, most recently by Antony and Victoria Jarvis and Claire and James Birch, the gardens at Doddington have been restored, cared for, nurtured and developed to their fullest potential.
THE EAST FRONT
The point at which the dramatic nature of the architecture of the Hall becomes apparent. A regular pattern of box edging and topiary follows the outer original Elizabethan walls, leaving the central view of the Hall from the Gate House uninterrupted. Standing guard in the forecourt are four topiary unicorns, representing the Jarvis family crest.
THE WEST GARDEN
Reorganised in 1900 with the help of experts from Kew, the West Garden is a riot of colour from April through to September. Wide borders filled with botanical surprises such as the naturalised Crown Imperials, elegant Edwardian Daffodils and a Handkerchief Tree frame a tapestry of box-edged parterres bursting with glorious Bearded Irises in late May/early June.
THE WILD GARDEN
A spectacular pageant of spring bulbs begins in early February with swathes of snowdrops and Crocus tommasinianus, continuing through March and early April with drifts of Lent Lilies and our unique collection of heritage daffodils, winter aconites and snake head fritillaries until May when our famous Irises steal the show in the West Garden. There are also winter-flowering and scented shrubs, Rhododendron, and an underlying structure is given by topiary and some wonderful trees – the ancient, contorted Sweet Chestnuts that overlook the croquet lawn are still productive.
Meandering paths lead you to our Temple of the Winds built by Antony Jarvis in memory of his parents, a turf maze that he made in the 1980s, and if you look hard you may find the ‘dinosaur’s egg’ (a large boulder that he put in the branches of a field maple tree to surprise the grandchildren).
A nature trail starting from just beyond the Temple at the end of the Garden follows a circular route back to the ‘ha ha’ at the end of the Yew avenue and provides a pleasant and interesting walk of about a mile. The route passes through woodlands, open parkland and a wetland meadow from where the clay was dug to make the bricks to build Doddington.
THE KITCHEN GARDEN
Thanks to a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the formerly neglected two-acre Walled Kitchen Garden was restored to its former glory in 2007. Just a stone’s throw from the Hall it now provides an abundance of fruit, vegetables, salads and herbs which take centre stage on the Café and Restaurant menus and are regularly for sale in our Farm Shop.
By implementing organic techniques including crop rotation, minimum tillage, biological controls, the use of green manures as well as no-dig beds, we are able to naturally maximise productivity and minimise pests so we have no need for chemical fertilisers, weed killers or pesticides.”
A photo garden tour.
East Front
West Garden
Wild Garden
Kitchen Garden
Bryan Dodsworth
A great name for an Iris!
If you have an opportunity I would recommend a visit to Doddington Hall, besides the hall and gardens, they have a cafe, restaurant, farm shop and several other shopping outlets, you can even get married there.
Chloris at The Blooming Garden encourages us garden bloggers to venture out into the garden in all winds and weathers to take pictures of our favourite ten blooms each month. My ten include the inevitable Snowdrops, of which I have the grand total of three varieties, (Chloris is the one to visit to enjoy a Galanthus feast), the common Nivalis, its double and the third which I think is Galanthus S. Arnott. This is also Hellebore season, with the orientalis adding their charm and colour to the February garden.
I am very impressed with the Hamamelis in the oriental garden, it has been flowering since December. I do have a degree of admiration for the variegated ‘Laurel’, which at this time of year lightens up the rear of the oriental garden. It was a rescue, ‘no name’, plant when we were living in our previous house. I could not decide where to plant it therefore it remained in a pot until we developed the garden here. I do like to see an underdog succeed!
This is the beginning of the Crocus season, there are more still to flower in the garden. ‘Gypsy Girl’ is I think a bit special with its brown stripes, it is in pots along with an unknown Iris Reticulata. A favourite Iris this time of year is ‘ Katherine Hodgkin’, I have had it in the garden since Carol Klein sang its praises during a lecture at Pershore College.
In the White and Green garden there is a nod to the seventies when we all grew Conifers and Heathers. The Erica Carnea ‘Whitehall’ thrives due to it not requiring ericaceous soil, it sits below the fragrant flowering Winter Honeysuckle.
A special plant for me is the Lunaria Annua ‘Rosemary Verey’, its dark leaves providing a contrast to the snowdrops. I purchased one plant four years ago and have saved seed each year to raise plants for the garden and to sell at our open days. It has also self sown around the garden, coming true each time even though we have two other varieties here. Rosemary Verey was the first garden designer to influence me, from visiting her garden, at Barnsley, Gloucestershire, experiencing the style of planting within the borders and the pottager. Then through her books, with the plan of her Chelsea garden in 1992 inspiring the original layout of what I now call the blue border. (It has changed somewhat since 2005).
While Christmas now seems a while ago the flowering Hippeastrum was a gift to Irene from a friend. We were very impressed with its three blooms.
I think its a varigated Laural .
Hamamelis Moll Pallida (Witch Hazel)
Galanthus ‘Flore Pleno’
Galanthus ’S Arnott’
Iris ‘Katherine Hodgkin’
Crocus ‘Gipsy Girl’
Iris reticulata
Hippeastrum
Hippeastrum
Crocus with a Fuchsia in the old cast iron boiler.
Erica carnea ‘Whitehall’
Lonicera fragrantissima
Helleborus orientalis
Lunaria annua ‘Rosemary Verey’ with Galanthus nivalis
These are my ten favourites for February, please visit Chloris to see what she and other bloggers have chosen. Do you have a favourite February flower?
brimfields.com 