Iris and Iris-like plants
for the Northeast Florida Landscape
Iris grows well in Northeast Floridas subtropical climate zone. They add an excellent architectural element to the landscape with their boldly upright foliage of sword like leaves. The upright foliage adds texture that compliments surrounding plantings beautifully when they are not busy showing off their wide array of fantastic bloom shapes and colors.
There are somewhere between 250-300 species of Iris and many cultivated selections ( cultivars ) within select species to choose from. Iris can prefer sun or shade and wet pond embankments or dry sandy soils depending on which of those species they belong to. The majority of Iris will bloom in spring or early summer and all will have sword-like or grass-like leaves and showy blooms that are complex in structure. Iris blooms consist of 6 flower petals, 3 that are generally more upright or arching in the center that we call standards and 3 lower petal like sepals that are held from horizontal to drooping that we call the falls.
Although Iris are for the most part a care free perennial plant option easy enough for even beginning gardeners to test their skills against, they do require some maintaining to be at their best. Iris will need minimal yearly maintenance and will bloom and thrive year after year in the northeast Florida landscape when dug and divided every other year. If left in the ground indefinitely instead of being dug and divided Iris foliage will begin to decline and the blooms will be minimal to none instead of flourishing where they have been planted.
S & J Tree Farm and Nurserys Iris / Iris like Plant Varieties