Northwest Blooms · Irises
Iris 'High Desert'
High Desert Iris
- Height
- 40 inches
- Width
- 1 1/2 to 2 feet
- Flower color
- Lemon yellow, creamy white and red-purple
- Foliage color
- Medium green, upright, sword-shaped foliage
- Bloom time
- Midseason
- Light
- Full sun
- Water
- Moderate, drought tolerant once established
- Growing zone
- USDA zones 4 to 8
About this plant
Iris 'High Desert' is a tall bearded plicata iris with ruffled flowers that bloom in midseason. Lemon-yellow standards rise above falls that open yellow at the shoulders and soften to warm creamy white through the center. A narrow red-purple band traces the outer edges, while matching veins and markings add definition around the shoulders and beneath the beard. Mustard-orange beards touched with pale purple complete the unusual color combination. Upright, sword-shaped green foliage forms tidy fans beneath the flowering stems.
Registered in 2014 and introduced in 2015 by hybridizer Keith Keppel, 'High Desert' received an American Iris Society Honorable Mention in 2017 and Award of Merit in 2019. Its combination of sunny yellow, creamy white, and red-purple creates a warm but intricate effect that works especially well in mixed borders and dedicated iris plantings.
Works well in
Borders · Cottage Gardens · Cut Flower Gardens · Slopes & Banks · Waterwise Gardens
Companion plants
Dwarf juniper · Rockrose · Penstemon · Blanket flower · Blue flax · Prairie sage · Creeping thyme
Design tip
Use 'High Desert' where sunlight can illuminate the creamy centers of its falls and emphasize their darker edging. Repeating small touches of burgundy or purple elsewhere in the planting will pick up its markings while allowing the yellow standards to remain prominent.
Where to see it
This plant can be seen at Schreiner's Iris Gardens.
