PlantFiles: Peacock Flower, Bicolor Iris, Evergreen Iris, Spanish Iris, African Iris
Dietes bicolor

I planted several of these many years back. They just keep on growing and spreading. They didn't flower at first and I was disappointed, but when they started to flower, I was amazed! The flowers are at the end of a long stem and they dance in even the lightest breeze. I have some blooming in partial shade and several blooming in full sun. They are exactly the same plant and they have all adapted beautifully to their separate environments. They have experienced overwatering and underwatering, fertilizer and the lack thereof, and sometimes the unwelcome attention of my dogs, and they keep on thriving. I've got seed pods now and I am so excited. Even without flowers, these are willowy and delicately shaped, but extremely hearty. I highly recommend them. Just love them and they will return the love!

My Dietes bicolor plants took several years to bloom after I planted them. This year they started to bloom in the middle of February which is quite early for them to bloom. Last year, they bloomed all summer and had some blooms into the fall. I seldom water them and have never fertilized them directly. They have received fertilizer from a hanging basket above them that I add blood meal to each year before I plant pansies in it. If the plants never bloomed, I would still love them because of their lovely evergreen foliage. The only problem I find is that I have to remove fallen oak leaves from between the blades each year because I am afraid that they will cause the plants to rot. Dietes bicolor is one of my care free plants that provides beauty year round.

The guy who did our landscaping planted several clumps of these, but said they were bearded iris. They didn't do anything for a couple years except expand. When they bloomed I was very pleasantly surprised to see this type of iris, one I had admired for a long time but didn't know what it was. The only unfortunate thing is that when I needed to divide a huge clump, it took a very long time for the main clump to bounce back from the stress. When I say a long time, I mean a couple of years. Also, the divisions I put into containers all died. I think I may have overwatered them. I like these evergreen iris because the foliage is very architectural, and when it isn't blooming looks like a very nice ornamental grass. The flowers are a nice bonus, though the blooming period doesn't seem to be very long here in the SW.

Brandon, MS Zone 8(a)

I have had African Iris (Dietes vegeta) going on 3 years. It has never bloomed. Someone close to my zone told me that it takes 2-3 years for it to bloom. If that is true, mine should bloom this spring.

I see these everywhere, so I know they grow here, but I am on my second plant and just can't get this one to survive. The leaves have looked saggy for a long time, and have lost their vibrant green color. Most have started to brown at the tips and eventually brown all the way to the base of the plant. It has never bloomed. I have moved it to part sun, full sun, shade, you name it. It has gone with a lot of watering, and it has gone with very little watering. I just can't get it right! I really wish it would bloom!

Joined DG just to see what a bloom on this plant looked like! In many years, it has never bloomed for me. I have had it in ground and in a pot. The plant has multiplied but not excessively. A true disappointment here...

I grow two species: D. bicolor and the more common D. vegata (syn. iridioides). Of the two, the iridioides is a far superior plant: D. bicolor has finer blades and flowers much less frequently, often taking two years to produce their first flowers here in Central Florida. That said, the blooms are a striking saffron yellow. D. bicolor is a tough, attractive plant that has no apparent proclivities towards disease or insect damage. My friend who lives in a cool microclimate here reports that this year, when it got down into the mid-20s, hers died to the ground. In seven years of growing these, I've never had mine even browned by frost.

Traditional Dutch and Bearded Irises do not grow well on the gulf coast; African Iris, although at best a very distant cousin in appearance, will--and quite well.

The leaves are bladed but darker green, thinner, taller, and much more flexible than traditional Iris. They are neither ornamental nor unattractive; non-descript would be a better term. The flowers, however, are very nice and do indeed look something like a miniture iris with white petals and dark markings.

I understand that they tolerate full sun, but mine are planted in light shade and they do very well in that location. They are very low maintenance--I typically water them in the process of watering the lawn, but nothing more. I also find that the use of a bloom-promoting fertilizer will cause the number of blooms to explode!

I bought 4 of these African Iris that were marked Dietes vegata, but turned out to be Dietes bicolor. They are low in water requirements, and with the 3 hurricane's in 2004, I lost 2 from all of the rain bringing on "root-rot". The two that did survive are doing well and blooming in full sun! Very good plants for sandy well drained soils.

In our south Texas heat, this one survived neglect (no water/feeding/weeding) and no attention for six months in a deer infested location when we went West. I love it. Good survival skills. Snapshot to come. Poozak

This plant has recently became very popular again. Since June I´m seeing blooms everywhere, not only here in Rio, but in several places I´ve been since then. It´s a very atractive flower, specially if you see it closely (the light yellow doesn´t appeal me from a long distance), because you can see the orange lines ans marks between the light yellow sepals and the black spots. The floral morfology is pretty didactic too. Now most of them are bearing capsules... time to harvest them and pray to have enough room to plant them.

This seems to be a very popular plant here in the lower South. The new growth in Spring and the blooms are nice, but I've never seen one here that by August didn't have scale all over its leaves. Apparently the plant can tolerate this, but it is very unsightly.

This plant does very well in Arizona heat. It has the sweetest flowers. Stays green all year. Very low maintance plant.