Irises top perennials for flowers, easy care

LAYTON — Finding the perfect plant is never easy, but when looking at flowering perennials that are easy to grow in Utah, irises are near the top of the list.

They tolerate heat and drought, and they're almost pest free. Best of all, they have some of the most spectacular flowers of any of the perennials.

One of Utah's most enthusiastic iris growers is Helen Criddle. For many years she tended the iris collection at the Utah Botanical Center when it was located in Farmington. While doing that, she and others expanded the collection into the finest in the state.

Criddle gardens with her husband, Val, in Layton, not too far from where she grew up.

"I grew up in West Layton on a farm and always worked the soil. I always loved these flowers when I was a young child," Criddle said. "My grandmother, who lived in Woodruff, always grew the beautiful blue flowers that we called flags at that time. Of course, we do not call them flags anymore; we call them iris.

"It was from her garden I really learned to love these flowers."

Woodruff, located in Rich County, is one of the coldest spots in the state, with an average frost-free growing season of 57 days. This illustrates just how tough irises really are.

Criddle got involved with the Utah Botanical Center's iris collection after taking a master-gardener class at Utah State University. "I needed to fulfill my volunteer hours, and I volunteered to help with the iris," she said. "When we got word the old gardens were going to be relocated, we carefully dug and moved the plantings. We planted them in beds and carefully cared for them because we wanted to preserve the collection for inclusion into the relocated gardens."

She still manages the collection at the Kaysville location. Thanks to generous donations and other acquisitions, there are some 600 varieties of iris at the gardens. They are still in holding beds but will be planted in the gardens as they develop.

According to Dave Anderson, project director of the center, the new Legacy Teaching Garden will feature the collection of the iris and the daylilies that were moved from the old botanical gardens in Farmington.

The gardens will feature all irises that have been selected as Dykes medal winners. The Dykes medal is awarded to the most outstanding iris varieties in the country by the American Iris Society.

Irises grow from and are propagated by fleshy underground stems know as rhizomes. These stems grow larger and spread each year, and they sustain the plant in times of drought or other unfavorable conditions.