Iris Ally Oops

The iris ‘Ally Oops’ is a singular hybrid that combines the vigour of a marsh iris with the fineness of a Siberian iris. Its large flowers display a palette of pale blue and cream veined with violet blue, enhanced by a large yellow blotch. The plant flowers in May-June, above a beautiful clump of leaves. It is a refined yet vigorous variety, well-suited to banks and moist soils.

'Ally Oops’ is a perennial plant with fleshy rootstocks. It belongs to the Iridaceae family and is classified among interspecific irises of the SPEC-X group. This variety is probably the result of a cross between a Siberian iris and Iris pseudacorus, the marsh iris. It inherited from the former fine foliage and more delicate flowers, and from the latter a good tolerance to waterlogged soils. The plant grows from superficial rootstocks that multiply slowly at the periphery. It fills out quickly when the soil is rich and moist. Its foliage is deciduous: it dries up in late autumn or winter, then regrows from the rootstock in spring. The young leaves display a chartreuse yellow hue in spring, before turning green in summer. They are long, narrow, upright, with a prominent midrib.
The height of this iris varies according to growing conditions: clumps established in a fertile bank reach 70 or 80 cm in height when in flower. After 3 or 4 years, the clump occupies 40 to 60 cm in width. The flowering occurs in May-June. The flowers are large for a hybrid of this type, but retain a light appearance. The trailing sepals, cream to very pale lemon yellow, fade almost to white over the hours. They are traversed by fine violet-blue lines, more dense near the centre, and adorned with a large bright yellow signal at the base. The upright petals, narrower and smaller, are light blue to lavender blue, like the styles at the centre of the flower.

Bred by Dana Borglum, registered in 2000 and introduced in 2002, ‘Ally Oops’ received an Honorable Mention in 2005, an Award of Merit in 2007, and then the Randolph-Perry Medal in 2010, the American distinction reserved for interspecific hybrid irises. 

Plant the iris ‘Ally Oops’ in groups of three young plants, spaced 45 to 50 cm apart. On a moist bank, you can associate it with Iris sibirica ‘Paprikash’ in apricot, copper and violet tones and with Iris pseudacorus ‘Crème de la Crème’, for example. Closer to the water, plant the flowering rush Butomus umbellatus. Behind your irises, the loosestrife Lythrum salicaria ‘Blush’ will raise its long pale pink spikes in summer.