Doddington Hall’s top iris tips

Doddington Hall and Gardensis an RHS Partner Garden near Lincoln, a stunning Elizabethan house enclosed by its original garden walls. The East Front is simple and formal, while the West Garden is richly planted and reaches its peak in early summer. Spring bulbs

These are fleshy, rounded, underground storage organs, usually sold and planted while dormant. Examples include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, onions and garlic. The term is often used to cover other underground storage organs, including corms, tubers and rhizomes.

shine in the wild gardens alongside ancient trees, and the estate also includes a productive kitchen garden.

Irises are a signature feature of the West Garden, where they have been grown since the 1980s. Set within box and grass-edged parterres, their sumptuous blooms create a striking tapestry through May and early June.

Different irises are featured at Doddington, including ‘World Premiere’

Antony Jarvis, whose family inherited the Doddington Estate in 1830 and still calls it home, shares his insight into getting the very best from these elegant plants.

When well grown, irises provide a surprisingly long show, each stem producing its full number of flowers. Out of season, their foliage continues to earn its place, offering attractive groundcover that helps maintain structure and interest well beyond the early summer display.

Antony’s favourite bearded irises

‘Langport Wren’ irises are a rich pop of colour against the greenery

Iris ‘Langport Wren’is a wonderful, deep mahogany cultivar

Gardeners often use the word variety when referring to a specific plant, but the correct botanical term is 'cultivar'. Whichever word you use, it means a distinctive plant or plants, given a specific cultivar name and usually bred to enhance certain characteristics, such as flower or fruit size, colour, flavour or fragrance, plant size, hardiness, disease resistance, etc. Additionally, it is worth knowing that, botanically, variety has another meaning - it refers to a naturally-occurring distinct plant that only has slight differences in its looks. For example, Malva alcea var. fastigiata differs from typical plants by having an upright habit.

, known for being tough and reliably full of flowers. Its glaucous green foliage and stems hold up to four blooms, combining rich reddish purple standards with deep maroon falls, washed with dull greenish yellow beside the dark red-tipped beard. Plants reach around 70cm in height. Hardiness rating H7.

Iris ‘Ma Mie’, bred by the famous French iris hybridiser Ferdinand Cayeux in 1906, is an unruffled and delightfully graceful variety. Its elegant white flowers are traced with blueish purple veins, giving it a refined, vintage charm that can easily steal the show. Semi-evergreen foliage adds interest beyond flowering, and plants grow up to 90cm tall. Hardiness rating H7.

‘Wabash’ irises feature silky white and velvety purple petals

Iris ‘Wabash’is a striking bicolour, displaying stark white standards above rich purple falls. This vigorous rhizomatous perennial

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.

grows to around 1m in flower, supported by upright, sword-shaped, grey-green leaves that give it structure throughout the season. Hardiness rating H7.

Iris ‘Blue Florentine’ produces bright French blue flowers with a noticeable fragrance, which is why it has long been valued in perfume making. It sends up stems to 120cm, bearing medium-sized blooms with wide, erect, cupped standards and narrow, distinctly drooping falls. Both are silvery white with a blue tinge, finished with yellow beards. Hardiness rating H6.

The ‘Doddington system’ of iris division

Doddington Hall & Gardens

View of the iris parterres at Doddington Hall Gardens

The garden team finds its ‘Doddington system’ a trouble-free way to divide irises. “Irises need an absolute minimum of attention under this system. Some of the older cultivars continue to flourish after 28 years in the same beds,” says Antony. “The key advantages are a regular and full flower display, speed and physical convenience.”

The system is underpinned by two characteristics of iris plants:

• Irises set flower initials in August, determining how many flowers each stem will carry the following May
• To set the maximum number of flower initials, the plants need to be undisturbed and warmed by sunlight between August and October

“The traditional system of autumn thinning

Pulling out some of the seedlings, usually along a row, so the remaining seedlings are spaced further apart. It reduces overcrowded, which can hinder their growth.

every three to four years allows irises to become overcrowded, leading to shading, explains Antony. ‘It also disturbs the plants at the very moment they are trying to set flower initials, resulting in an unreliable show of flowers the following year.”

Additional take-home growing tips

Doddington Hall & Gardens

Doddington's West Garden irises

• For maximum flowers, iris rhizomes
  

  Rhizomes are creeping swollen root-like structures that are actually adapted stems. Roots, stems with leaves and flowers are produced along its length. See plants such as Anemone nemorosa, bamboo, canna, border iris.

  need to be warmed by the sun in August and September. Avoid overcrowding of plants, as this shades the rhizomes, meaning few or no flowers next year
• If a bed has looked poor the previous May, try a light mulch
  

  Mulch is a layer of material, at least 5cm (2in) thick, applied to the soil surface in late autumn to late winter (Nov-Feb). It is used to provide frost protection, improve plant growth by adding nutrients or increasing organic matter content, reducing water loss from the soil, for decorative purposes and suppressing weeds. Examples include well-rotted garden compost and manure, chipped bark, gravel, grit and slate chippings.

  of compost
  

  Can refer to either home-made garden compost or seed/potting compost: Garden compost is a soil improver made from decomposed plant waste, usually in a compost bin or heap. It is added to soil to improve its fertility, structure and water-holding capacity. Seed or potting composts are used for growing seedlings or plants in containers - a wide range of commercially produced peat-free composts are available, made from a mix of various ingredients, such as loam, composted bark, coir and sand, although you can mix your own.

  in November. Antony finds mushroom compost or strulch (a straw-based mulch) works best
• Remove late-summer withered leaves when they will pull away from the rhizomes, or they can be left until spring, providing shelter for the rhizomes over winter
• Remove deadheads using shears. This job becomes more important as flowering advances, and finally, whole spent flower stems can be removed

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