Iris unguicularis 'Francis Wolseley'
Iris unguicularis 'Francis Wolseley'• Also known as Iris unguicularis 'Frances Wormsley'
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• common name: winter iris
• flowering season: winter, flowering on and off during spells of warmer weather
• height: 12 inches, flowers slightly shorter
• Light requirements: sun, afternoon shade where summers are very warm
• Soil requirements: average
• Water requirments: average
• Growth habit: grows as a slowly expanding clump
• How to propagate: dividing in early summer
• Leaf type: narrow, upright leaves
• Ways to use it: edging a pathway or the front of a garden bed; in a sunny rock garden
• Special characteristics: a plant will grow wider and wider over the years to reach a foot or more in diameter
A medium lavender-blue surrounds gold and white markings at the base of the petals. Each flower is three inches across. A valuable winter-flowering perennial, it is hardy in Zones 7 to 9, and to Zone 10 in the West. Leaves grow to twelve inches and the flower-stems are shorter at eight inches. If you wanted, the evergreen leaves could be cut to the ground at the beginning of winter to better see the flowers, although they show well enough without doing this. To get the greatest numbers of flowers, let the plants grow older and wider rather than dividing them every few years as is recommended for some other irises.