A knock sounds at the door, and you sink down into the couch, hoping whoever is at the door doesn't see you through the window. You pull up your {redacted for copyright reasons} doorbell app to look through the camera. A sigh of relief as you see a lone package, no human in sight.
That relief is followed by excitement when you realize - your iris order has finally arrived! But your excitement is short lived when you open the box. This isn't like any other flower you've ever purchased. The leaves are shorn down, there's a fleshy white protuberance.... you're supposed to plant this? Is it healthy? Is this what you were supposed to get?
Rest assured, they look weird at first, but, yes, this really is how irises come. Irises reproduce by rhizomes - fleshy underground stems that grow out from the first plant to create more, identical plants. Bearded irises, the most common irises, come in 6 different sizes. The size of the rhizome will vary, depending on what size of iris you ordered, but regardless of size, all rhizomes that you receive from any seller should be clean, thick and slightly fleshy, and attached to a healthy root structure. Ideally, any rhizome is going to be large enough that when you plant it, it is easily anchored into the soil.
We have filmed three different sized rhizomes being dug out, so you can see the differences between the sizes, and below is a description of all 6 classifications of bearded iris (along with the acronyms) so at your next garden club meeting, you can talk about irises like a pro.
Miniature Dwarf Bearded - (MTB)
Miniature dwarf bearded irises are the smallest bearded irises, only growing to about 8 inches high (20 cm). These bloom the earliest; in fact, you will notice a trend that as the categories get larger, the bloom season gets slightly later. Because of their tiny size, these iris are generally considered their most beautiful when they are planted in rock gardens or en masse in large drifts to create a "carpet".
Standard Dwarf Bearded - (SDB)
Although these are "dwarfs" by name, these are considered median irises (as are all varieties except miniature dwarf and tall beardeds). These grow from 8 to 16 inches (20-41 cm), and generally begin blooming as the MDBs start to end, but still early in the season. These tend to look best in clumps, rather than planted in large drifts. The SDBs also tend to have a wider range of colors and patterns than the MDBs or tall beardeds alone - and you can find SDBs with the "spot patterns" characteristic of MDBs, along with the patterns more usually found in tall beardeds - like plicatas.
Intermediate Beardeds - (IB)
Intermediate beardeds iris grow from 16 to about 27 inches (41 to 70 cm) and their bloom season overlaps the SDBs and tall beardeds - growing from early/mid season into the late. These blooms are interesting, showing off the unique color patterns of the dwarf varieties in an early bloom season, but growing taller, with individual bloom stalks. These are less predictable as far as how they present best. Some varieties look best in clumps, but some look best spread out, where the stalks and individual blooms can really shine.
Border Beardeds - (BB)
The border beardeds, along with the IBs and miniature tall beardeds, are interesting, because if you only looked at height, you could argue they are all the same. But while the border beardeds are in the same height range and bloom size as the intermediate beardeds, they bloom later, with the tall beardeds, and have slightly large blooms with round, ruffled petals.
Miniature Tall Beardeds - (MTB)
These blooms are the same height range as the BBs and IBs, and bloom with the tall beardeds, but these are much daintier. The blooms are smaller than the border beardeds, and the stems are delicate and thin. Clumps of MTBs are compared to butterflies, and these blooms are so suited to arrangements, that they are also called "Table Irises".
Tall Bearded - (TB)
These are, as their name states - tall. These irises grow over 27 inches (70 cm) tall, and taller, and have many buds on branching bloom stalks. A single stalk can make an arrangement, and the blooms display a variety of colors and patterns, along with features like ruffling, lacing, and other characteristics (see our learning page for more information on iris terminology).
See our video for more information about iris rhizomes.
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