That's an awesome combo Sherry.

You would think that just a few colors would go well together and be very classy and satsifying (purple, lavender, white, or blue, white, or shades of berry and pink and so on), but I vaguely remember reading something (years ago) by the late great garden writer Henry Mitchell. He was an avid lover of irises, and his favorite colors (iirc) were the dark purples and blues (though of course he must have had other colors in there). He had some Grand Dame of Irises come visit his garden, and (again, iirc) a discussion ensued as to why the colors weren't satisfying. She told him something along the lines that he had to add this-or-those color(s) (I think a straw yellow might have been one of them) in order to make things pop. Mr. Mitchell didn't like the idea (over his dead body, and so on), but he did as she suggested, and next spring the entire iris garden came alive.

Right now my irises are either on their own, or are grouped (those in the ground, that is) with limited colors... purple, lavender, white, pink, or blue, white, yellow... I fear that these grouped irises aren't going to be entirely satisfactory, color-wise... but you have to start somewhere.

I will have to look for Henry's book & see if that is in there. He was a funny man. I was so lucky to take a garden tour to England of which He was the leader & had a great time. I was much younger so could move around. Adding yellow to dark colors sounds reasonable.

I find dark purples to be the great equalizers in a bed, as well as yellow selfs too. The two of them together, is really a dynamic combination.

And more subdued is this bed.. not exactly in this order.. but too late to get it exact

Another great combo, Sherry!

I see why some would argue that adding orange or yellow irises to that mix would make the blue/purple ones 'pop' and echo the colours on some of the beards too - but the overall impression of the bed or border would change completely and even if it looked good, you would loose the calm that I like in blue and white beds.

There is an old rule of thumb in garden design, which states that you need around 20% yellow to make a garden colour scheme 'work', but I think that is entirely a matter of taste...

There is also an old saying; 'blue ties the garden together', so plenty of opinions to choose from!

Also remember when working with irises and most other flowering plants, you always have the foliage colour in the mix as well. I think this is one reason you can get away with flower colour combinations, that would look... ehm... very bold (!) in clothes or furniture fabrics.

Interesting comment, that, about the 20% yellow. Certainly yellow is cheerful in the garden, though I am not certain how I feel about the one yellow iris I have seen bloom thus far... it somehow seems wrong. (Yellow daylilies, on the other hand, I am very fond of, and there is nothing whatsoever wrong or unnatural about that color in that genera.)

One thing that I have read is to use reds sparingly, as an "ultimatum". I think there may be a lot of truth to this. When we first bought this property, there were a lot of things in red tones (not so much scarlet or red itself, but burgundies, roses, dark pinks and so on) - red maples, azaleas, roses, and the like. It was actually oppressive, and I can't say that I missed losing many of them (long story there).

I guess the use of color is going to come down to "effects" and "feel". If you want loud vibrant color, then you will do things like mix oranges (or hot pinks) with blues and greys... and have reds with whites and purples. (Someone once wrote that rather than white calming down colors, it incited them.) On the other hand, if you like a serene garden, then whites with pastels, or beds in purples-lavenders-whites (as in Sherry's "subdued" bed), and so on.

So far I've incorporated all of my irises into mixed perennial beds, each of which have a color scheme, so that has simplified how I designate new rhizomes to various beds. Last summer I layed out trays labeled for each bed. After separating the rhizomes I could just grab a tray and get all the iris designated for a particular bed planted. I have the size noted on the tags (SDB, IB, TB, etc.) to remind me how to place them.

Until last summer all of my beds were dedicated to mostly vibrant, saturated colors and some saturated pastels. This made it hard to place beige and brown irises, and others displaying autumnal tones. I have a new bed in progress dedicated to muted autumn colors. I plan on using some bright pops of gold and orange among the rusty reds, browns, and beige.

I've been watching the Rose Bowl Parade this morning and noticing all the color combinations I'm really liking.

I've read about the 20% yellow too... I use a lot of yellow with my Iris... Some beds I edged in yellow violas.. They really made everything pop and unify the beds..


I LOVE blue and yellow together.. They're my happy colors... My blue and yellow bed should come into it's own this year..

I love your gardens, Sherry!

Me too!

Me three!! Gorgeous!

Lovely, Sherry!

The rabbits don't eat the violas? Or don't you have rabbits?

sherry! (me that is)

Gorgeous, Sherry! I love blue and yellow together, too - especially with some white in the mix...

Polymerous said:Lovely, Sherry!

The rabbits don't eat the violas? Or don't you have rabbits?

I didn't have a rabbit problem for my first 10 or so years here... then there was an explosion of them for a few years.. I had to make chicken wire cages around my roses... A bobcat apparently noticed the abundance of food and started hanging around.. Now I've got a fox too. Last year I only saw one rabbit all year. I've got the cute little cotton tails here. No jack rabbits.

We have the cotton tails here too; they are not so cute when they eat the annuals and the low branches on the roses, and the hosta, and and and. Hence, no violas in this garden, now.

Warp doesn't think they're so cute either - he growls when he sees them outside in the yard. (It has been a while since he caught one, and now I think they are sheltering underneath our wooden deck; at least, that is one place that they make mad dashes for when we come out into the garden. )

For years I couldn't get rid of the violas.. Seems to me, they pretty much disappeared during the bunny years, now that you mention it... Now they've self sowed in the Iris gardens again.

I love the colour combination, Sherry.

I think it shows why irises are really well suited for two-toned beds, because you do not just get blocks of uniform colours next to each other; the patterns and beards make the mix far more interesting to look at. (Another good reason why you need a wide variety of irises in each bed! )

I also love blue, yellow, and white together! I have 3 big beds dedicated to those colors. I've added quite a few irises to those beds over the last couple of years as well as some white and yellow peonies.