Why did we start planting Siberian iris and not Virginia spiderwort? Was it the worship of English gardens and their Continental plant palate? Or was it a distain for all things local? Maybe it was the name, that simultaneously conjures eight-legged beasts and skin lesions?
And yet, if we can get over those things, and look at what a plant does for us, spiderwort and Siberian iris fill pretty much identical roles in my garden. They are linear, vertical plants that provide purple blooms of similar size at the same time. They both contrast beautifully with peonies, roses, baptisia tinctoria, Kalmia, zizia, and lonicera sempervirens, all blooming now.
To the gardener they provide similar services. To the bugs and other critters in my garden, though, not so much. My Maryland insects don’t go for Siberian foliage. So I’m swapping them out.
I’ll keep some iris – they do stay grassy and green throughout the summer, whereas the spiderwort has an ugly season in August. But maybe spiderwort planted beside a little bluestem…? I’ll have to give it a whirl.
A Gardener's Lot 