Everyone has different ways of organizing irises in a bed, whether by height, bloom season, hybridizer, color, or a combination of those things. For me color is the biggest thing I look for when deciding which cultivars to put together. Lately I've been getting more fancy with picking solid colors to pop color out of multi-colored varieties.

Here is a picture of Breakers and Picasso Moon together that I think really sets off each other's colors. They're close to being opposites on the color wheel.

In one bed I put clusters of cooler colors on the left and warmer colors on the right.

And sometimes it's just random prettiness (Daughter of Stars and NOID light peach).


What colors do you think look nice together? Do you mix and match different colors, or have a bunch of monochromatic tones that you like together?

I'm glad that some gardners are artists & think about such things, We really plant on a space available process & sometimes plants near each other for hybridizing. However I would suggest watching out for plants which don't mimic each other too much & I have seen a beautiful bed of blue & white irises complimenting each other.

I am particularly fond of pairing bright red with purple for drama - but I haven't yet found the right irises that bloom at the same time to try this. I'm trying to limit myself to earlies and mids.

I like to put complimentary colors next to each other to help each other pop. I have similar patterns next to each other too. I don't want them to be too similar. I imagine color combos I would like 'Brilliant disguise' planted next to 'Pumpkin pie ala mode'.(I don't have these Iris.)

If these two bloom at the same time next year I would love to plant them next to each other. 'New Face' & 'Florentine Silk'

I love both of those pairings Niki, particularly Pumpkin Pie ala Mode and Brilliant Disguise.

@gemini_sage

Neal is a good one to chime in, here.

Yeah he is! I just wish he would fit into a box, so I can ship him out here to help plan my garden.

You and me both, Rob.

And when he's done with your gardens he can come to mine!

This area of purples, lavenders and whites draws a lot of people to it.

I still have so many in pots that it should be easy to place them where I want them when they are in bloom. that said I would love a little area with black iris and white iris planted together. I think they would be stunning together.

or black & yellow. We have done that with tulips. Remember the different sizes. Start you color combinations with SDBs, then work up the sizes with IBs & early blooming TBs & then mid years & late bloomers.

Black and yellow would be breath-taking too! the other thing I need to do is to put the rebloomers all in one bed. Again and Again bloomed for a long time until we got some very cold nights.

My Brilliant Disguise's standards look more gold than orange so I am not sure they would be good with Pumpkin Pie A la Mode. It may be soil differences.

I have seen pics of black and white gardens that look lovely. The yellow and black would be interesting, especially if you threw in some with yellow and black stripes like Bumblebee Deelight.

I planted a small rebloomer bed and a small SDB bed this year. On some of the other new beds, I actually planned out what went where. My other iris beds were planted by what ever was grabbed. The only thing I tried not to do in the random beds was 2 of the same color next to each other.

I've done some alphabetically and that wasn't the best thing to do. I've done some randomly, and that has had to be adjusted at times. More recently I've tried to put better color combinations together that bloom at the same time. Still waiting to see how that works. One bed that I re-planted I put colors together from lighter tints to darker shades in progression to see how that would look. As in moving from light orange to darker orange, and then turning in to pinkish orange to full out pink, then light lavender to dark purple, etc. It hasn't been fully in bloom yet. We'll see how that looks some day.

I like to mix irises with other plants in my beds based on colour. I am trying out various combinations and so far I have (iris)beds in brown/beige and lilac/mauve (and blueish foliage), one in blue/purple and white, another in bordeaux and white, a blue iris bed (blue, purple and white) in memory of my grandmother and I am putting together a fire-bed with red purple foliage and flowers in yellow, orange and red. The beds I will be making this year will be a little more of the 'where can I possibly put another iris' variety, but hey, it's irises so it can't be too bad, right? Right?

I try to use plants which will either flower for at long time or make sure I have plants which flower at different times of year to carry the colour scheme for as long as possible through the seasons.

Only a few of the beds are mature enough to give the full effect yet. I have posted pictures of my brown/beige and lilac/mauve bed several times before, but I'm still quite happy with it, especially because I never thought I would find enough 'brown' flowers to ever make it work:


I like how the lilac Pincushions and the blue Fescue emphasise the blue in the iris foliage.

In the picture (left to right):

TB Mythology (T. Johnson 2003)


TB Guatemala (T. Johnson 2005)


Pincushion (Scabiosa columbaria 'Butterfly Blue')


Blue Fescue (Festuca valesiaca glaucantha)


Coral Bells (Heuchera 'Caramel')




Star of Persia (Allium christophii)


Oriental Poppy (Papaver orientale 'Patty's Plum')

The little iris leaves in front belongs to

MDB 'Extra' (Cleo Palmer 1989)

Other irises in this bed (among many others):

SDB 'Hocus Pocus' (Ben Hager 1976)


SDB 'Bonnie Babe' (Mahod 1965)


(Monty Byers 1989)


MDB 'Blue Beret' (Earl Roberts 1967)


IB 'Langport Storm' (Kelways 1995)


(Paul Black 2008)


(P. Hutchison 1959)


(Chet Tompkins 1990)


(Schreiner 1970)

Alphabetical doesn't work every season you have to replant I like putting opposites in the center of the bed and breeders around the edges. I have one bed of just purples in every pattern my girls favorite color is purple. I find as my addiction advances that it leans more toward blends these days. I feel there is no good way because every year the beds get bigger

Too true!