Iris germanica Colour me Rose - Bearded Iris

The 'Colour me Rose' Iris is a dwarf garden iris that flowers early in April. Its pretty flowers are antique rose in colour, with delicately adorned sepals with a purplish violet spot around the blue beards. This variety will quickly form beautiful tenderly-coloured clumps, perfect for creating lovely spring decoration in rockeries and borders, with e.g. crocuses or botanical tulips. 

The 'Colour me Rose' Iris is a rhizomatous and deciduous perennial plant, with an upright clump-forming habit starting from spring. It belongs to the Iridaceae family. It is one of the many modest-sized cultivars that appeared in the 1950s. Originally, the 'lilliput' category referred to the crossbreeding of an Iris pumila and a tall iris, but they often descend from the Iris chamaeiris. This term generally refers to the category of Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB) irises. Irises in this category bloom about a month before the tall Garden irises and just after the miniature irises.

The 'Colour me Rose' Iris will reach a height of 30 cm (12in) when in bloom, and the clump will spread over time, in theory without limit, with the central rhizomes thinning out in favor of the outer ones. It has a dense clump-forming habit. The foliage consists of long sword-shaped leaves, glaucous green in colour, with parallel veins. In March-April floral stems appear which will produce flowers in April, opening from the top towards the lower branches. The colour of this plant is, as always with Garden irises, enhanced by the texture of the petals and sepals. 

To accompany the irises, choose plants to associate with them based on their needs (sunlight, soil), their "respectful" growth habit vis-a-vis irises (low-growing plants or light foliage), and how they complement each other visually (appearance, flowering period). For example, Gauras won't create a lot of shade and will keep the bed attractive throughout summer once the irises have flowered. Eschscholzia, like irises, will be content with dry and poor soil. Geraniums, salvias, and Libertia also accompany irises very well. Slopes and terraced edges will be stabilised by a dense planting of old diploid varieties that can remain in place and require little care. 

Rockeries, stony and dry meadows, limestone plateaus, rocky slopes, green roofs: there is a wide range of irises to make use of. Borders and beds are the domain of border irises, but also of dwarf irises.