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Although I always dread the fall chore of digging up big clumps of Japanese iris every three years, I must admit that doing so opens the opportunity to try different vignettes.

The purple Japanese iris (tag long gone and so it is unknown) is a great bloomer. With my last division of this iris, I planted it graduated—or staggered—up a slope rather than on the same level.  My logic was that each clump grows quickly and by planting each divided piece up the slope instead of grouped on the same level, I could hopefully extend the number of years before needing to divide again.

Was the resulting design a "staggering" achievement or defeat?

The staggered planting adds to the layers of foliage, flowers and even seed pods as the garden fluxes with different bloom times of the surrounding plants. In such a large garden, I have to rely upon foliage that looks good throughout the growing season.

I'm particularly fond of the deep purple striped seed pods of nigella damascena 'Miss Jekyll Blue' (love-in-a-mist) and lacy foliage with the purple iris blooms.

The monarda and echinacea foliage provide wider leaves, while the Japanese blood grass foliage is pointed and echoes the deeper red from the spirea. The frilly foliage of spirea and ageratum keeps the mass of from looking the same with the gold and bright green colors.

This is a large section of garden, so there are many more perennial players to the sides as well as up and down the slope. The month of June, everything changes so quickly. The blooms of Japanese iris last only a short time, but the long, pointed foliage can be easily blended into the garden.

If you want to grow iris ensata (Japanese iris), the perennials are suitable for zones 4-9 in mostly full sun with moist, acidic soil. Deer will occasionally pick the blooms, but not bother with the foliage. The rabbit will sometimes eat the points of the foliage when it first emerges in spring. Neither has damaged the plants enough to discourage me from using the irises in the deer resistant meadow garden or the gravel garden.