Iris ensata 'Rivulets of Wine'

This beauty was the first post on another blog that I started, and then decided that I just didn't have the time to run a few separate blogs. This beauty is Iris ensata 'Rivulets of Wine'. I love this one because people think that Iris ensata are white or Purple. Not so - there are pinky shades in many.

Iris ensata Rivulets of Wine

copyright © Bernadette Adams 2022

My affair with Iris ensata, started about twenty years ago, when I bought my very first specimen, Iris ensata 'Pinstripe', from Ashwood's Garden centre near Wolverhampton. Sadly, I don't even seem to have a picture of it, and the plant succumbed a long time ago - I am quite ashamed of that, and annoyed, as it is proving quite difficult to find a replacement. My excuse is that life was very busy at the time - it is marginally less so, now. However, I have a new garden which has rekindled my interest in the Species and its gorgeous cultivars. Today, I'm going to talk about Iris ensata 'Rivulets of Wine'

Iris ensata 'Rivulets of Wine'

Iris ensata Rivulets of Wine (left) in the border with a double purple Iris ensata and Iris ensata Moonlight Waves. Copyright © Bernadette Adams 2022

This is one of my favourite new Iris ensatas (on the left in the picture above) - mainly because its colour palette tends more towards the pink than the purple. I also love its veining, which is wine based on an almost white fall (large petals). It is double, and in its first year here the diameter of the flower is about 15 cms, or 6 inches for those who prefer Imperial measurements. Currently it is standing at about 50 cms (20 inches and does not have much of a spread. Next year, I will be expecting a much larger plant growing up to 1 metre tall (40 inches) with multiple stems and blooms. Here in Cumbria it started flowering on the 20th of June, and is still in flower.

Iris ensata Rivulets of Wine was bred by Terry Aitken, whose Salmon Creek Garden in Vancouver, Canada, is famous for its irises. He registered it in 1999, and it has won the Award of Merit Award in 2006, and an Honorable Mention in 2002. 

It really is an eye catching gorgeous Iris, which will attract the enquiries of any visitor to your garden when it is in bloom. I bought my bareroot division from the Gobbett Nursery, who produce many wonderful plants. Their main outlet is through plant fairs but you can order plants for delivery, which they will send to you when the season is over in October or thereabouts. 

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