A Stylized Iris Cousin – Nemastylis

Raise your hand if you’ve grown the North American native iris relative, Nemastylis tenuis? This fascinating small bulb is in full flower now at JLBG. In the wild, it can be found straddling the US/Mexico border, crossing into the US in two counties each in Texas and Arizona. There, they grow in rocky grasslands, both in sun and light shade. The 10″ stalks are topped now, and sporadically in summer, with very attractive azure blue-lavender flowers. While in the wild, they grow in very dry alkaline soils, we grow ours in regularly irrigated beds of our native sandy loam mixed with compost, where they obviously thrive. We’ve offered them twice, and sold a whopping total of 21 plants. Because they are so amazing, and we’re hard-headed, we’ll try again with a new crop next spring. If you are interested, you can add it to your wishlist and we will email you when they become available.