Iris germanica Petit Tigre - Bearded Iris

'Petit Tigre' is an intermediate iris that offers a palette of warm colours combining bronze yellow, pale yellow, bronze brown and wine red. Its undulate flowers bear a very pronounced plicata pattern, almost striped, which fully justifies its name. The flowering stem, stouter than that of a tall iris, is well suited to borders. It is a mid-season variety that flowers between late April and May, before the tall garden irises.

Intermediate bearded irises form a group between dwarf irises and tall garden irises, both in terms of height and flowering period. Their stems bear flowers smaller than those of tall irises, but beautifully formed. 'Petit Tigre' reaches 65 cm in height when in flower. It can do without staking in a not too windy position. The flower stems carry several buds that open successively from top to bottom.

This iris belongs to the family Iridaceae. Like other garden irises, it develops from a thick, horizontal rhizome that lies at the soil surface and multiplies year after year. From this rhizome arise sword-shaped leaves, glaucous green, erect in a fan shape. They form a fairly low clump and are more or less deciduous in winter. Flowering occurs in the middle of the intermediate iris period. The flower has a plicata pattern: this term refers to irises whose light-coloured floral parts are veined, edged or flecked with a deeper colour. In ‘Petit Tigre’, the three upright petals are medium bronze yellow. The three trailing sepals show a pale yellow background, striated with bronze over much of their surface. Their wine red border highlights the undulations and gives the flower a tiger-striped appearance. The beards are thick, bronze-coloured, with a purple tip.

'Petit Tigre' is a creation of Richard Cayeux, registered in 2005 and marketed by Cayeux in 2006. Its seedling number is 9819B. It is the result of a cross-breeding between ‘Hoodlum’ and seedling 92245A, itself related to ‘Sweet Melody’, ‘Rio De Oro’ and ‘Jitterbug’ in its parentage.

Plant this iris ‘Petit Tigre’ at the front of a border, in a border or near a sunny patio. Allow the tops of the rhizomes to be level with the soil surface and avoid plants that are too ground-covering, which would deprive the clump of sunlight. You can combine it with Allium atropurpureum, with Euphorbia characias ‘Tasmanian Tiger’, with Achillea ‘Little Moonshine’ or with Carex testacea ‘Prairie Fire’. These plants offer colours in harmony with its bronze, pale yellow and wine red tones.