Japanese Irises are blossoming

10 July 2015 It is time for the garden group of Japanese Irises to blossom. Iris ensata Thunb is the botanical name of the iris – forerunner of numerous sorts of this group of irises.
The group of Japanese Irises growing in our Botanical Garden more than 100 years. That time they were grown as a pot culture, it was recommended removing the winter. Our climate with cold winter and fluctuations of low temperatures did not suit exotic Japanese Irises. In 1956 G. I. Rodionenko the first winter-resistant sort Sano Watashi x Iris ensata was produced. For many years this seedling showed good results wintering in the Iridarium without cover. Later the winter-resistant sorts of Altai and Dersu Uzala emerged. Now the collection includes 23 samples of Iris ensata collected in wild and 27 sorts of the garden group of Japanese Irises. Only the samples of domestic selection Altai, Dersu Usala, Vasilii Alferov, Pervi Vals, Rosovoe Oblako, Temnaia Noch’, Trehlepestka can winter in our climate without cover. At this year’s exhibition cultivars bloom from Dr. Dolganova (Barnaul): Altaiskaya Snegurochka, Goriansky, Nekrasy, Oirotia.