The ongoing drought has taken a toll on the spring flowers. But both in 2025 and 2026 the bearded iris ‘Innocent Star’ has shone.
According to Iris Wiki, George Sutton (founder of Sutton’s Iris Gardens) bred this cross of ‘Innocence Abroad’ and ‘Rock Star’ in 1999. Although it is listed as a tall bearded iris it is shorter than the two other tall bearded irises nearby. But had a lot of flowers and they lasted for several days even in our hot, dry March 2026. The brick red and creamy yellow flowers were a bright spot in an otherwise sad spring.
Bought from Gilbert H. Wild and Son for $10.50. They came beautifully packaged in pots with good root growth. But just small baby plants. I don’t think they will flower this year. Fed each with Bulbtone when planting.
2025-03-29
First flower. Maybe ever. Two of them. The color is between maroon and brick red. I wouldn’t call it purple.
Category: Plant Highlights | Comments Off on Iris ‘Innocent Star’
Iris Wine Festival – TB EM 38″ Re. Like a fine wine, this full-bodied merlot pairs up with blushes and blends, peppered with rich mahogany and splashes of violet. White spotlights highlight this festival of blooms in an eye-catching display of delight. Very light fragrance.
Note: Their photo looks much more pale lavender than either their description or my photo.
(Frank Foster, R. 1980) Seedling# 75-412A. TB, 38″ (97 cm), Early to midseason bloom. Ruffled white ground plicata, stitched rose violet, very pale line through length of falls; gold beard. ‘Cayenne Capers’ X ‘Rococo’. Foster 1980
From AIS Bulletin #237 April 1980
Introducing WINE FESTIVAL-(Sdlg. 75-423A). TB, 38″. (Cayenne Capers X Rococo), E-M. Plicata perfection in this rose-violet on white ground beauty! Plenty of buds, good branching, ramrod stiff stalks and vigor hardiness plus! Ruffled, domed standards; wide falls are semi-flaring and ruffled. Excellent substance. A color showpiece long remembered. $25.00. Frank Foster.
Garden History
December 16, 2022
Bought two rhizomes of ‘Wine Festival’ from Gilbert H. Wild and Son for $12.50 each.
March 9, 2023
Iris order arrives. Planted.
April 8, 2025
Bloomed.
Category: Plant Highlights | Comments Off on Iris ‘Wine Festival
Purchased from Gilbert H. Wild and Son for $11.75. They came beautifully packaged in pots with good root growth. Fed each with Bulbtone when planting.
2023-04-05
First flower…only a month after I planted it. In my experience it usually it takes a year or two for irises to settle in.
Color described as “garnet-rose” (a rich, saturated, dark red). The photos on the sellers website made it look more rust than my photos which look more maroon (more muted, earthy red with chocolate tones).
We gardeners have our phases and about 20 years ago I fell for bearded irises. I had the Schreiner’s print catalog memorized and could amaze my non-gardening friends with my ability to identify each iris by name. (Gardeners know this isn’t much of a feat as we spend hours comparing photos and so, of course, we know the names of our irises, roses, daylilies, daffodils, etc.)
A friend of mine recently took a class on gardening and listening to her excitement sparked my own. After all, in Austin, now’s the time we usually restart our gardens after our horrible summer…and even though the weather isn’t cooperating, the urge remains.
Last night I went online and ordered half a dozen irises from Schreiner’s. Their annual sale coincides with the best time to plant in the south.
Why did I give up on irises? In 2002, we had a really wet July and most of the fancy bought ones rotted. Then my yard got too shady. Then my knees gave out and I couldn’t be bothered with digging them up and dividing them. Then we had the horrible year 2011 of 90 days of 100°F or hotter…when I gave up on gardening altogether.
Why rekindle my romance? Well, I cleared out a whole section of yard when we had planned to build the ADU and cut down some trees. So now I have a big blank canvas in full sun to fill. And life’s too short not to enjoy a flirtation…even if I know the relationship is fleeting. When these die, there will be another year and different irises to desire.
Category: Garden Essays | Comments Off on Iris Redux
Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.
December 2009
The last couple of Decembers, I managed to sneak in a flowery GBBD before winter’s first hard freeze. This December the hard freeze came first to Austin and so there is very little blooming in the garden today.
New for December
Only two plants began flowering since November’s GBBD: one passalong blue bearded iris and the winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima. That’s a long name for an insignificant flower. It’s power is in its scent. Both began blooming yesterday (12/14).
Winter honeysuckle.
I also bought a tray of yellow snapdragons. They hardly seem like real flowers since I bought them in bloom and they look more or less the same weeks later. I usually buy violas but I couldn’t find a color I liked this year.
The white marigold ‘Kilimanjaro’ bloomed just days before the freeze and then died. The paperwhite narcissus, the first of all the narcissus to bloom, are usually flowering in my garden by now. They are flowering elsewhere in Austin but not here. Mine need dividing, I think.
Hanging on
Pacific chrysanthemum caught the fancy of several garden bloggers during our field trip to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. I picked up a plant at the Antique Rose Emporium that same trip. The flowers are a pretty gold but I’m more attracted to the foliage. Pacific chrysanthemum.
Snow fell in Austin since November’s GBBD but it didn’t stick. The closest I have to a carpet of snow is a little clump of sweet alyssum which survived the heat of summer. Sweet alyssum.
The roses ‘Ducher’ and ‘Red Cascade’ which were in full bloom before the freeze have survived. Some of the smallest buds froze and never opened but the larger flowers still look pretty from a distance. On closer inspection you can see they were nipped by the cold but unlike so many other flowers, they didn’t turn to much and go brown.
December 15, 2009
The list of all plants flowering today, December 15, 2009, at Zanthan Gardens.
Ajania pacifica (2009)
Antirrhinum majus (2009)
Aster ericoides (2007, 2009)
Commelinantia anomala (2009) a few flowers, most froze
Galphimia gracilis, indoors (2009)
iris, unidentified blue bearded (2009)
Lobularia maritima ‘Tiny Tim’ (2007, 2009) survived the summer
A lavender blue bearded iris opened this week and I had to go through my files of photographs to identify it. Everyone is under the misconception that I keep great records. In contrast, I feel like I never write down the precise bit of information that I want to know later. When did I transplant this iris? Where did I move it from? What is it? Why didn’t I label it or jot down a few notes?
In my files I found several photos of ‘Incantation’. Some taken with my digital video recorder in on April 21, 2002. Another set taken with my first digital camera on April 24, 2005. These showed the distinct veining on the falls and the bit of bright orange on the throat of the otherwise white beard.
Bearded iris ‘Incantation’. April 24, 2005.
This year ‘Incantation’ opened on April 25th. I have only one rhizome left which has sent up one stalk with three flowers. I originally bought three rhizomes from Schreiner’s in 1999 for $7.50 a piece (not factoring in the discount). They bloomed in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, and now 2009. I thought I’d lost them to rot completely. I transplanted them again last fall and only one survived. It has been smothered by bluebonnets most of the spring and I was completely surprised when the flower stalk popped up last week.
Here’s my original impression from April 20, 2000.
First flower. Well-proportioned with standards the periwinkle blue of some of the larkspur. It blends very well with the larkspur but what I really need is contrast. This is the trouble with liking one color and buying every flower that is that color.
I think I was wrong. I look at the photo at the top of this post and now I think that’s just perfect.
