and their hybrids, they are long-lived in the garden in areas not
watered in summer. They flower best if planted deeply. The problem
is that most commercial stock is infected with ink spot disease,
which soon debilitates the plants once they are not subject to the
Dutch cycle of lifting, treatment, and controlled storage. Growing
I. reticulata from wild-collected seed was a revelation for me:
plants three times the size of commercial varieties, and setting big
seed pods.

A few bearded irises have persisted here, notably I. albertii, wild
forms of I. pallida, and I. subbiflora.

Some Juno irises seem to be doing all right outdoors here, in
particular I. magnifica, I. vicaria, and I. bucharica, all of which
are readily available. I grow them on the rock garden. Now I'm
trying some selections of the Regelia species I. stolonifera
outdoors. Oncocyclus irises cannot be grown in the open in the
Pacific Northwest, and hardly can be grown under cover, unless you
use fungicides and keep them dry until late winter.

The bulbous irises of the Xiphium section are represented in our
gardens mostly by "Dutch" irises, which don't persist here over many
years since their winter-growing foliage gets frozen. Far better is
the "English" (actually Spanish) Iris latifolia,

Iris unguicularis is increasingly grown in the Pacific Northwest,
though it can be expected to suffer in our colder winters. (I keep
some in the bulb frame as insurance.) Its close relative I. lazica
is more cold-hardy and flourishes here, as do most plants from the
Pontic region, its home.

Spuria irises do very well here, but they are grown mainly by
specialists, since they take up a lot of space for the sake of a
very short season of proportionately small flowers. Siberian irises
are fine as long as I get them in spots where the soil is retentive
enough. Iris cristata cannot be grown here because of the slugs,
which love it intensely. Japanese irises (I. ensata) do not flower
for me, I suspect because of too much night cooling at this
elevation; they are hot-and-humid-summer plants and do fine on the
valley floor 1500 feet (500 m) below me.