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Bearded irises come in an array of colors. They have a wider range of colors then any other perennial that you will find in the garden. In the color descriptions you will probably see many irises with black, red, or green color descriptions. Many people will disagree with me but I do not feel that there is yet a true black, red, or green iris. The blacks still have a purple tint, the reds a rusty tint and the greens an olive or chartreuse tint. As the old saying goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and so is the color description.
Bearded irises are also given basic pattern descriptions. To understand the pattern description you will need to know that the top 3 petals of an iris are referred to as the standards and the bottom 3 petals are referred to as the falls. Below are the most common pattern descriptions:
- Amoena – white standards and colored falls
- Bicolor – standards are different color from the falls
- Bitone – standards and falls are different shades of the same color
- Blend – combination of two or more colors
- Broken – irregular slashing with one or more colors
- Plicata – marked with stitching, rims, or dotting
- Self – standards and falls are the same color
- Variegata – falls are yellow, standards are brown or purple
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