Iris sibirica Harpswell Happiness - Siberian Iris

Iris sibirica 'Harpswell Happiness' is an excellent variety of Siberian iris, compact, floriferous, and bright. The plant bears large swirling flowers during a long period in early summer, with cream-white petals overlying broad white sepals enhanced with green veins, and lemon yellow at the base. Loved for their graceful flowers and their fine, upright foliage in an architectural and vigorous clump, the 'Siberian irises' are very beautiful plants for damp soils, unlike their cousins Iris germanica. They are hardy and adaptable plants, which thrive in good garden soil, moist in summer. Irreplaceable near water features, as long as the roots are not submerged in winter, they are perfect for romantic, English, and even contemporary-style gardens.

The 'Harpswell Happiness' iris is a hybrid horticultural creation introduced by Mc Ewen in 1983 (USA). It is a plant in the Iridaceae family that is included in the group of Siberian irises. Its ancestors originate from Asia, specifically from marshy and sunny areas found in Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan, and Korea. It is a perennial herbaceous plant with a creeping and thick rhizome.

The plant reaches maturity in 4 years and reach a height of 80 cm (32in) when flowering. From spring it forms a dense clump of narrow, linear, upright, medium green leaves. Flowering occurs in June-July. From the clump of leaves, hollow and branched floral stems emerge, slightly taller than the vegetation. Each stem bears many flower buds, 5 to 7 cm (2 to 3in) long and 1 cm (0in) wide. The buds open into flowers with a diameter of 8-10 cm (3-4in), consisting of 3 large pendant sepals with a light lemon yellow base touched with green, surmounted by 3 smaller, erect inner cream-white petals. After pollination by insects, the flowers give way to fruits that are capsules containing seeds.

Siberian-type irises are wonderful plants for landscaping near water features, but they do not like soils that are waterlogged and frozen in winter. The solution may be to plant them in pots that are immersed in spring and taken out in the autumn. In a good garden soil that remains moist throughout the year, enriched with compost, this Iris can be grown without difficulty. Mix them together, combining different colours, or for example with Japanese primroses or feathery astilbes.