Iris louisiana Ann Chowning

Iris sibirica Blue King is a majestic variety of Siberian iris that offers large and elegant flowers, in a very pure violet blue or royal blue colour, veined with white at the throat. They bloom in June, dominating a dense clump of leaves that remains beautiful for many months. Appreciated for their graceful flowers and graphic foliage, Siberian irises are vigorous and beautiful plants of wetlands, unlike their cousins Iris germanica. They are also very hardy irises, which will thrive in good garden soil. Irreplaceable near water, provided that the stumps are not submerged in winter, they are perfectly suitable for naturalistic, English, and even contemporary style gardens.

Iris sibirica 'Blue King' is a rhizomatous and deciduous perennial plant, with an upright tufted growth habit from spring. It belongs to the Iridaceae family. It is one of the many cultivars obtained from Iris sibirica, native to Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Turkey (but absent from Siberia), and Iris sanguinea present in China, Siberia, Japan, Manchuria, and Korea. This blue iris will reach about 1.20 m (4ft) in flower, 70 cm (28in) in height for the foliage, and the clump will spread over about 50 cm (20in). Its growth is moderate, slower than that of Iris germanica. This plant has an erect, elegant growth habit, in a dense clump. The foliage consists of long, narrow leaves of a somewhat greyish green colour. In June, the floral stems project above the foliage, bearing solitary flowers with 3 sepals and 3 petals, succeeding from the tip of the stem to the lower branches. This iris spreads through rhizomes, its vegetation disappears in winter.

The 'Blue King' Siberian iris is perfect near a water feature or a stream, or simply in very wet soil. It can also be used in any type of garden that never completely dries out in summer. Its grace is perfectly suited to romantic gardens, English gardens, and other mixed borders. It can be associated with all plants that thrive in moist soil: summer snowflake, camassia, poet's narcissus, montbretia, daylilies, astilbes, meadowsweets, phlox, tall asters, meadowsweet, etc.