Master Gardeners of Lubbock

A New Look At Old Favorites

by Liz Smitten, Certified Master Gardener

Originally printed in Avalanche Journal Garden Supplement, April 16, 2005

When I was new to the South Plains and to gardening in this area, a long-time resident told me that we were fortunate to have three seasons of flowers: iris in the spring, marigolds throughout the summer, and chrysanthemums to brighten autumn. Once this seed had been planted in my mind (we gardeners seem inordinately fond of puns), everywhere I looked that year, these were the three flowers I saw, and such is the nature of prejudice that I developed a long standing and totally unreasonable aversion to having them in my garden. However, last autumn my sister-in-law took me to visit a splendid chrysanthemum nursery in Northern California, and I learned that in addition to the cushion mums we commonly see, there are twelve other classes, including mums with curved, incurved, reflex, spider, quill, and spoon petal formations; mums that resemble anemones, pom-poms, buttons, and thistles; and mums that cascade, or are trained as climbers. The mums which captured my heart were the spiders, which look like a multi-colored Fourth of July fireworks display. I knew I had to have some, found a suitable spot in my front garden, and placed an order for delivery in May.

Four or five years ago almost the same thing happened when I discovered two perennial marigolds called the Mexican mint marigold, (Tagetes lucida), and the Copper Canyon daisy (Tagetes lemmonii), in our local nurseries. Mexican mint marigold grows to two feet high as an upright shrub, has narrow leaves with the scent of fresh tarragon, and clusters of small pale yellow flowers. Copper Canyon daisy can easily reach five feet, is bushier, with finely divided leaves, and small, golden, daisy-shaped flowers. The fragrance of the leaves is absolutely intoxicating to me (as good as chocolate fudge laced with vanilla, which I always thought should be made into a perfume), however some of my friends don’t find the plant particularly aromatic or the fragrance appealing. As with the common French and African marigolds, both these plants love the hot, dry summers and bloom until our first killing frost.

Irises became part of my garden much earlier; the back garden of my first house in Lubbock was bordered with mature evergreens with clumps of tall, white, bearded iris in the foreground. In the late spring evenings, they looked like large and exotic butterflies against the dark pines, and reminded me of my grandmother’s cottage garden in Minnesota. When I moved to my second house eighteen years ago, there were no iris, indeed, there was no garden. Friends came to the rescue; one gave me some tall yellow flag irises, which were supposed to need partial sun, acid soil and more than average moisture. Unfortunately nobody ever told the yellow flags, and within two years they had formed a large colony in alkaline soil in a fully shaded, dry flower bed. I finally moved them to a parched strip in full sun at the side of the house, withheld supplemental water, and they have happily existed under these conditions for a number of years. Another friend brought me a wonderful selection of peach and pink bearded iris from her father’s collection in Northeast Texas, yet a third friend dug clumps of deep bronze bearded iris from his grandmother’s country garden, and a neighbor told me about the annual local Iris Society late summer sale. Not only is this a great source of plants, but the Society members are always willing to give advice on soil preparation, planting and dividing, pest and disease control, and choosing varieties which extend the bloom period.

In Greek mythology Iris was the goddess of the rainbow, and it is the bearded irises, whether dwarf, intermediate or tall, that come in the most dazzling array of colors and color combinations, and these are most strongly represented in my garden. But as with the chrysanthemums, I have learned that there are many different kinds of iris, and my garden now includes not only the bearded varieties and the aggressive yellow flags, but numerous Louisiana iris which are supposed to like the same conditions as the yellow flags, although they too seem to have adapted to a drier and sunnier location. Iris pallida, with creamy white and gray-green striped leaves and soft lavender flowers; elegant blue, rosy pink, and white Dutch iris; the five foot tall, glowing bronze spuria iris; and the miniature crested iris planted in front of a bed of roses complete my current collection.
As with the marigolds and mums I have come to love, as long as there is space in the garden I expect to keep expanding my iris collection, and perhaps when I am an old lady, I too will tell a newcomer to this area that it is the iris, marigolds and mums which have been the backbone of my three season garden.

For more gardening information in Lubbock, visit the Lubbock Garden Clubs site.