Japanese Roof Iris Shade

After noon shade in hot areas will benefit bloom.

Japanese roof iris shade. Native to eastern asia and cultivated in japan for more than 500 years it prefers full sun to partial shade. It prefers dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought. The foliage may become a bit floppy with age. Japanese iris iris ensata is also known as japanese water iris.

Japanese iris are heavy feeders. The colony will slowly increase in size or you can speed the process along by dividing the plants in the fall. Other legends indicate it was used to ward off evil spirits. Its dense fans of broad ribbed glossy green sword like leaves are 12 long.

Like all irises it should be planted with the rhizomes just at the surface of the soil. Or perhaps it was for purely pragmatic reasons to help hold the thatch together. Chad shows a pair of customers the root system of a ready to be divided iris. If happy it will reseed.

This simplifies their care and lets you just enjoy the flowers. They prefer a sunny to part shade location in rich well drained soil and benefit from the shelter of a wall with western or southern exposure and winter mulch. Some sources suggest that when space became too precious for anything but food crops japanese women who used the powdered rhizomes as a face powder began growing iris tectorum on their thatch roofs. Its foliage wide blades like bearded iris curves into an elegant cascade that is such an unusual texture in shade even dry shade.

The short lived flowers come in white alba or blue violet and their form looks like butterflies. Growing japanese iris plants are rarely bothered by disease or the borer which often attacks the traditional bearded iris. Depending on your soil a liberal application of balanced fertilizer for acid loving plants rhododendron camellia in the spring just before or after bloom is beneficial. Also known as japanese roof iris iris tectorum prefers part sun to sun with some afternoon protection and moist to average well drained.

Iris tectorum alba has wide white flowers with yellow crests. Iris tectorum alba will spread to form an attractive ground. Japenese roof iris as a plant collector rather than a garden designer i adore plants that are a bit out of the ordinary and if they come with a good history or story so much the better. Japanese roof iris is one of those plants.

Japanese roof iris is also useful in wet areas such as around ponds and fountains. You can enjoy growing japanese iris plants with delicate blooms in moist and shady locations if you provide plenty of acidic water. It is very delicate and pretty but has an interesting past so it is no wonder that i love it. The rhizomes should be spaced 10 16 inches apart planted at 1 2 inches deep and will mature at soil level.

Please donate to support our plants to save the planet project. It can grow in semi shade light woodland or no shade.