Mini dark blue Iris Reticulata.
Courtesy of P. McKie
I love seeing my friend Peggy’s yard at the different seasons of the year. I have mentioned in previous articles that she designs with a creative plant palette. As a mosaic and watercolor artist, she is really good with color and composition.
She carries this into her landscape design beautifully. In addition, she is one of the best horticulturists I know, so stuff grows and thrives for her. She does all this without using a lot of water, focusing on water-efficient landscape principles.
Last week I got to see her yard on a warm, sunny day. California poppies have sprouted everywhere. She had some purple-blue miniature irises (Iris reticulata “Dark Blue”) that I had never seen before – perfectly formed at about four inches tall (see photo).
Next to these were crocuses, also in purple, complimenting the iris perfectly. Golden yellow daffodils were showing their color as well.
Peg has a couple of golden currants, and she presented me with a conundrum, “Both are the same genus and species, so why is one leafed out, while the other is not?”
She went on to clarify that while they are the same genus and species, they were from different parts of the West: the leafed out one from San Luis Obispo area and the barely budded one, from the Nevada State Tree Nursery in Washoe Valley.
I speculated that while they were the same genus and species, I imagined the subspecies and locale of origin may have created genetic variation in growth patterns.
In her yard they grow in similar soil, similar light conditions, receiving similar amounts of water. I speculated that coastal genetics may cause the SLO plant to green up sooner because the winters there are much milder and shorter.
But I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. They are the same age and were the same size on planting. One difference is that the SLO one was dug up as a cutting, grown in a one-gallon container and brought here.
Maybe as a cutting off a mature plant it had a head start, size-wise. Peg’s yard is always ahead of mine in growth and blooming times. Her yard faces south and west with a heat island effect from the driveway to the south and the street to the west.
The beds are covered in a gravel mulch, and they warm up much faster than my tree-shaded beds. Our yard is also at a slightly higher elevation with a wind and cold channeling down Musgrove Creek into our yard and sitting there. Our microclimates definitely differ.
JoAnne Skelly is Associate Professor & Extension Educator, Emerita University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Email skellyj@unr.edu.