Morning Iris Orthrosanthus multiflorus

Morning iris opens its flowers at first light and is finished with them by early afternoon, so a clump looks like it is doing nothing to anyone walking past after lunch. The trade off is quantity: through spring it sends up successive spikes of soft sky blue flowers over several weeks. Out of flower it holds a tidy tufted fan of narrow, stiff, grey green leaves, iris-like rather than grassy. It is used along path edges, drifted through dry native beds and repeated in low input plantings.

A southern species that hates wet feet

It occurs across southern Australia and into Western Australia in open heath and woodland on light, freely drained soils, and it behaves accordingly in a garden. Sandy or gravelly ground suits it and heavy clay that stays wet through winter does not, so if that is what you have, plant on a raised mound with coarse material worked through. Once established it wants very little summer water, and this is where it fails: irrigation running through a hot, wet summer over heavy ground rots the crown, and a plant that looked healthy in spring is simply gone by autumn. Space plants in loose drifts so the fans touch as they mature, and give them air movement rather than a still, heavily mulched pocket. Individual plants are not especially long lived, but a planting carries itself on by gentle self seeding if you leave a few seedlings standing. One point of identification: it is often confused with Patersonia, the native flag, which flowers purple rather than blue. If you want a drift rather than a few plants, raise the rest from seed, since it germinates readily and seedlings settle in better than divisions.

Blue flower or pure texture

Next to spear grass, the other tufted native here, this is the one with a flower and no hazard attached. Austrostipa is grown for form and movement, and its seed carries a long twisting awn that works into socks and dog coats, so it belongs on a bank or a verge rather than beside a path. Morning iris has no awns, keeps a neater fan and gives you weeks of blue, so it is the safer edging plant. For a taller flower with a seed head to leave standing, Allium Luna covers different ground again, though it wants richer treatment and its leaves fade as it flowers. Plant the morning iris where it will actually be seen in the morning, which sounds obvious and is routinely ignored.

Tidying the fans after flowering

Do not shear it like a grass. Cut spent flower stems out at the base once the last spikes have gone over, which keeps the clump tidy and slows self seeding if that matters to you, or leave a few standing if you want seedlings. Old outer leaves brown off naturally and pull away cleanly by hand, a better job than a haircut across the whole fan since it leaves no cut tips to go brown. Feeding is rarely needed. If the soil is genuinely poor, a light dressing of low phosphorus native fertiliser in early spring is enough, and nothing at all through summer.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 75mm up to 140mm, priced from $16.95 to $16.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.