Iris germanica Spectator - Bearded Iris

'Spectator' is a particularly contrasting bicolour intermediate iris. On its flower, dark plum petals dominate cream yellow sepals widely marked with plum on the shoulders and margin. A colour that catches the eye in a border. This variety fits into spring scenes with cream, purple, violet-brown tones and associates very well with bluish foliage.

Iris germanica 'Spectator', from the Iridaceae family, is an intermediate bearded iris: its height places it between dwarf irises, which are shorter and often earlier, and tall garden irises. It reaches 55 to 56 cm in flower, an ideal size for the front of borders. It is a perennial plant with fleshy, horizontal rootstocks that emerge at the soil surface and produce new sections at the periphery. The foliage is glaucous green, long, narrow, pointed, more or less evergreen depending on the severity of winter. Flowering occurs in May, corresponding to mid-season for intermediate irises. The flowers display a plicata pattern, that is, a light background edged, veined or marked with a darker colour. In 'Spectator', the three upright petals are dark plum, with a slight cream tinge at their base. The three drooping sepals show a white-cream to pale lemon-yellow centre. The shoulders are dark plum and the margin bears a solid band, also plum, fairly regular. The beards are discreet: they go from white to light yellow, with brownish, violet or fawn tips. The style arms are plum, with dark brown to reddish-plum crests.

'Spectator' is a creation of Keith Keppel, registered in 2011 under seedling number 06-225B. It comes from a cross between 'Ruby Eruption' and 'Class Ring'. This cultivar received an Honorable Mention in 2014, then an Award of Merit in 2017. These distinctions reward a well-typed intermediate iris, with a flower of neat design, a rare colour in this category and good garden performance.

'Spectator' fits easily into a sunny border, at the edge of a path or in a flower bed. Avoid planting carpeting perennials near its rootstock so that the rootstocks receive sun. You can associate it with Intermediate Iris 'Blessed Again', with Allium atropurpureum, with love-in-a-mist or with Festuca glauca 'Intense Blue'. A few late white or purple-brown tulips can also accompany its May flowering.