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Iris X Robusta 'Dark Aura'

RHS award winning iris

Grown by Jack

Hereford

Plant in a 2L Pot

£15

Out of stock

Perfectly happy plants, or your money back

Specialist overnight plant delivery

The highlights

  • Captivating purple and green foliage
  • Flowers between May and July
  • Great for pollinators
  • RHS Award of Garden Merit winner

Description

  • This striking iris features deep purple flowers with dark purple and green blades of foliage
  • Show stopping purple flowers with a white and yellow eye bloom between May and July
  • Wonderfully suited to water gardens and ponds, as well as pots and borders
  • Fully hardy, this iris is one seriously tough plant - it can survive below -20°C!
  • This iris is highly attractive to pollinators
  • It's important to note that irises are toxic to animals if ingested
  • Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit winner

What To Expect

Supplied as:

Potted plant
Plant in 2 Litre pot

Height on arrival:

Eventual height:

90cm

Eventual spread:

40cm
Spreads approx 40cm

Time to first crop:

Flower colour:

Purple
Purple standards and falls with yellow and white centres, flowering from May to July

Habit:

Clump forming
Upright flower stems emerge from clumps of foliage. These clumps spread over time to form colonies.

Hardiness:

Fully hardy
H7 - fully hardy down to below -20, needs no winter protection.

Rootstock:

Spacing:

30-60cm
Plant 30-60cm apart to allow for spreading

How To Grow

Excellent pest and disease resistance

Iris plants are generally free from pests and diseases. If planted in water, be aware of root rot - to prevent this, make sure the water depth is no more than 15cm. If your pond edge is deeper, you may need to plant in pots. Keep an eye out for the Iris Sawfly - a pest whose larvae eat the foliage of waterside irises. They look like greyish-brown caterpillars up to 25mm long and initially eat v-shaped notches from the leaf margins before moving on to eat from the leaf tips downward. This isn't usually too serious and plants can recover, but it's a good idea to encourage predators like birds and ground beetles, as well as regularly inspecting plants during the growing season and removing any larvae by hand. If planted in a border or pots, slugs and snails may be a problem. For slugs and snails, it's important to keep the area around the plant free of debris and as dry as possible, especially at night as slugs and snails love damp conditions. You can use barriers such as eggshells or copper wire to surround the plant to prevent slugs and snails from reaching the leaves. It's also a good idea to spray your plant with water which has boiled some garlic in it for around two hours. For more serious slug and snail control, you can also use specific nematodes that will find the pests and cause them to die.

Water if planted in borders

Irises typically need moist soil so although those planted in ponds will not need extra watering, you will need to keep an eye on them if planted in beds and borders, making sure to water in dry or hot weather as required.

Full sun to partial shade

Irises prefer a position in full sun (6-8 hours of sunlight daily) but will also thrive in partial or dappled shade.

Fertile, moist, well drained soil

Irises are fans of moist (but not waterlogged), slightly acidic soil. They are well suited to planting at the edge of a pond or in a bog garden.

Feeding may be needed

No feeding is needed if you plant your irises straight into a mature pond due to the nutrient content of pond water. However, in a non-pond setting, it's a good idea to feed both before and after the blooming period using a slow release, granular general fertiliser.

Planting Calendar

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  • Harvest
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Hereford

Meet Jack

Perennials born in Herefordshire, blooming in your garden

Our perennials start life in the rolling Herefordshire hills, where Jack and his team trial over 250 new varieties each year to bring you the best performing and most sustainable plants in the UK. With over forty years of excellence, it’s no surprise that they’ve won the HTA Plant Grower of the Year award two years running.

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in the UK

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Your plants are sent to you fresh from the field in our plastic free box that’s specially designed to hold them tight, then securely delivered by specialist plant couriers - straight from the grower to your garden within 
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