Dwarf iris can be seen blooming among the tulips, weather depending.
Easy to plant, easy to care for, easy to enjoy! That is the Iris. And such variety too! Variety of size, variety of bloom season, variety of color, variety of style. Isn’t success in life all about the choices we make? That simple maxim can apply to the realm of the flower garden too. The Iris offer such a host of choices, one is surely to find just the right color, or size, etc. Let’s talk about the breadth of bloom time, for example. The Miniature Dwarf Iris and the Standard Dwarf Iris are among the very first Iris to bloom. Weather depending, of course, they open up their diminutive blossoms (just 5 to 15 inches in height) approximately mid-March to early April (in most temperate zones), heralding the launch of another promising Iris season.
The Dwarf Bearded Iris are no less hardy than their taller, more robust cousins. Dwarf Iris, both Miniature and Standard types, propagate with strength and, once in bloom, stand up to the early spring frosts. There are several wonderful resources available which provide great detail on the origins of these hybrids. The Dwarf Iris Society is a good place to start for further links and leads on exploring the subject. Several Iris breeders today have introduced spectacular Bearded Iris cultivars in miniature.
Intermediate Iris bloom early in the spring, often alongside tulips
As spring widens its embrace upon the land, weep not for the fading Dwarf Iris, for the Intermediate, Median, or Border Iris are opening on the garden scene! A bit taller than the tallest Dwarf, yet shorter than the shortest Tall Bearded Iris, they offer brilliant bloom to span the gap between March and May, a beautiful complement to the Cherry blossoms! The earliest blooming Tall Bearded Iris will overlap with the later-blooming Intermediate Iris, to create a seamless floral transition of color. Sprinkle in several mid-season and late-season Tall Bearded Iris around your garden, and the color show continues well into June.
A few moments spent casually mapping out the succession of Iris blooms in your garden will yield months of rainbow color from your ankles to above your hips! Dwarf, Intermediate, Tall Bearded, as well as Beardless Iris, are all planted in the summer months. Below is a simple chart, indicating approximate bloom times for Iris ranging from the Miniature Dwarf to the Tall Bearded, and including the Beardless Iris such as, Siberian and Louisiana. Bloom time is greatly dependent on weather conditions and gardening practices, however. For example, Reblooming Iris require regular extra fertilization, watering and dividing.
|
March |
April |
May |
June |
July/Aug/Sept/Oct |
|
Min. Dwf. & Std. Dwf. (5″ to 15″; 5cm to 28cm) |
Intermediates & Border (16″ to 27″; 40cm to 68cm) |
Tall Bearded (28″ to 48″;70cm to 122cm) |
Tall Bearded & Beardless (such as, Siberian and Louisiana) |
Reblooming Bearded Iris of all sizes |
Intermediate Iris (IB) “Many Mahalos” (Aitken, 2003) blooms early, among the tulips.
If you are one who can hardly wait for the year’s Iris season to start, you have merely to plant some Dwarf Bearded Iris this summer. You will have Iris blooming with the first inkling of spring warmth. Even if you consider yourself simply a fan, a dabbler, a curious gardening newbie to the world of flowers, give the Dwarf Iris a try!
Do you grow Dwarf Iris? Share your comments below!
What to do in the Iris garden this month…..read more on our site.
For the Love of Iris 
March 8, 2020 at 11:13 am
I have a small border of dwarf iris that bloom in March. You recommend that iris be fertilized a month before bloom. Should these small iris be fertilized in February, even though our last average freeze is not until the first week in April?
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March 10, 2020 at 9:48 am
Thank you for the question. We will be fertilizing our fields shortly ourselves, even though our average last frost day isn’t till April/May. It also doesn’t hurt too much to put slow-release fertilize down early. So assuming you’re using slow-release (for example, Schreiner’s Iris Gardens’ 6-10-10 Iris Food), putting down fertilizer on dwarfs in mid/late February would be OK. Let us know if we can be of further assistance. Happy bloom season!
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June 17, 2019 at 3:03 am
I am growing your Intermediate Iris Delirium. I am by no means an expert gardener but do have a number of your varieties. My question is, are intermediates especially robust as a rule? Delerium is a three year old clump with a massive amount of bloom, stiff robust stems and has been blooming for a couple of weeks at this point. It still has buds to open and is still blooming as it’s very tall sisters are in the middle of their bloom. It is about 2/3rd the size of the talls. I haven’t found any information online suggesting intermediates are esp. vigorous.
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March 19, 2019 at 6:00 pm
Can these grow in Florida?
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March 20, 2019 at 11:21 am
Hello Shirley. Thank you for the question. Iris do well in temperate climates. Iris require a period of winter dormancy to ensure good bloom in the spring. For this reason we do not recommend planting Iris in southern states, such as Hawaii, Florida and in Puerto Rico.We do not ship iris to these locations, because we cannot guarantee their success in these locations. As a general guideline, we do not guarantee our Iris in those areas of Florida with ZIP codes beginning with 328– (Orlando and south). We do ship catalogs, books and fertilizer to those locations, however.
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