Friends Who Don’t Steal the Show

Reading time: 3.5 Min.

The spectacular irises, which flower for two months a year (February–March), are the lead actors in the Iris Garden, but now, after renovating the garden, wildflowers will bloom there year-round. Although the wildflowers are the supporting actors, they make the garden attractive during all seasons of the year.

Somewhere, at Ramat Hanadiv, there is a unique garden – the Iris Garden. The iris is a beautiful, spectacular flower. Its impressive size is unusual, and it serves as the official symbol of the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel. There are many species of irises in nature in Israel: all are rare and some are endemic, in other words, unique to Israel. The most spectacular iris flowers are the Oncocyclus irises, including Golan, Lortet’s, Nazareth, Gilboa, Samaria, coastal, Judean, Negev and desert.

The Iris Garden at Ramat Hanadiv was set up in 2010 to establish a living collection of the Oncocyclus iris species growing in Israel and allow people who don’t want to go all the way to the Negev or the Gilboa to appreciate them. About 22 species were translocated to the garden from all over the country. Breeding them in the Memorial Gardens is a combination of scientific and horticultural work; these flowers are sensitive to change and disease and require specific care and attention, particularly since for most of them the Mt. Carmel region is not their native habitat.

Breeding the irises in the Memorial Gardens is a combination of scientific and horticultural work; these flowers are sensitive to change and disease and require specific care and attention, particularly since for most of them the Mt. Carmel region is not their native habitat

Dafna Helvitz at the Iris garden

Each Iris Flowers at Its Own Time

When the irises flower they look amazing, but their flowering season is short (each species flowers at its own time from about mid-February to late March), and until now the garden remained bare of flowers and vegetation for most of the year. This issue occupied the staff until, during the Design of Vegetation in the Landscape course that took place at Ramat Hanadiv, Dr. Liat Hadar, Director of Research at Ramat Hanadiv (and also a landscape architect), met Dafna Helvitz, an agronomist who works on landscape rehabilitation, including introducing wildflowers to areas disturbed for infrastructure development, such as the conservation and rehabilitation of the Route 6 strip. Dafna implements the knowledge and experience she has accumulated in infrastructure to nurture her private garden on Moshav Hayogev – a garden that combines annual and perennial wildflowers whose appearance changes from season to season. Liat was impressed by her garden and came up with the idea to renovate the Iris Garden using this approach. ‘Irises have a short season; for most months of the year the soil in the garden is exposed and does not attract visitors’. Helvitz clarifies the starting point and adds that the garden is dedicated to the memory of Iris Goldsmith nee Rothschild (who passed away in 2019), thus it was important that it should be well-kept, interesting and beautiful throughout the year. ‘In the wildflower garden the emphasis is on the variation within the garden throughout the year. Each month, different plants flower in accordance with the season and create a continuity of flowering and diverse appearance’, Helvitz explains.

Irises have a short season; for most months of the year the soil in the garden is exposed and does not attract visitors thus it must be well-kept, interesting, and beautiful throughout the year. In the wildflower garden the emphasis is on the variation within the garden throughout the year. Each month, different plants flower in accordance with the season and create a continuity of flowering and diverse appearance

Ada Gross in the Iris garden

Flowers and Shades of Green Throughout the Year

At the initiative of Dr. Liat Hadar, Helvitz was recruited to guide the project and help with the planning and planting. About two months ago, the horticultural staff began to enrich the garden vegetation by planting plants, bulbs and corms of dozens of species growing in the Nature Park and surroundings areas, with varying flowering times and appearance.

The species planted in the garden (about 35 species in total) include hyacinth squill (Scilla hyacinthoides), branched asphodel (Asphodelus ramosus), Narbonne star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum narbonense), Italian gladiolus (Gladiolus italicus), bunch-flowered daffodil (Narcissus tazetta), small-flowered pancratium (Vagaria parviflora), cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), king’s spear (Asphodeline lutea), wild pink (Dianthus strictus), common sage (Salva officinalis), Greek sage (Salva fruticosa), splendid bindweed (Convolvulus dorycnium), Mediterranean wild thyme (Thymus capitatus), bristly hollyhock (Alcea setosa) and maritime squill (Drimia maritima).

We’ve put together a mix of wildflowers that flower in different seasons, as well as evergreen plants that add foliage of different shades and diverse growth forms even when no plants are flowering in the garden

‘We’ve put together a mix of wildflowers that flower in different seasons, as well as evergreen plants that add foliage of different shades and diverse growth forms even when no plants are flowering in the garden’, Helvitz explains, ‘for example, oregano (Origanum syriacum) has greyish-green foliage, while summer savory (Satureja hortensis) is a vibrant green; thus, visitors have a reason to visit the garden even when the irises are not flowering’.

Local sub-shrubs, such as summer savory, thyme and oregano, give the garden the appearance of a semi-open Mediterranean batha, a characteristic landscape formation in the areas where irises grow in nature.

Helvitz emphasises that the planning included wildflowers that would blend in with the irises, which are the lead actor, but would not dominate them and steal the show when they flower. The work process began with a list of wildflowers compatible with the desired appearance.

Such a garden also supports high biodiversity, including plants, insects, bees, butterflies and more, particularly when it is managed without using pesticides.

‘We set up a table in which we wrote down the plants suited to the Mt. Carmel region and marked the flowering periods and appearance of the plants throughout the year’, explains Helvitz. In the next stage the two began collecting seeds and geophytes (corms and bulbs) from different locations; among others, they found the treasures of Ada Gross from Ma’agan Michael, a botanist who grows wildflowers in hothouses at the kibbutz with much love and dedication. Ada donated hundreds of seedlings of local plants to the project; these plants found a new home in the Iris Garden at Ramat Hanadiv.

A Garden with a Mission

Helvitz adds that in her opinion a wildflower garden is an ongoing project that is built over time. ‘This is a long, developing process that changes over time. We begin with the nucleus of plants, create a basis for the garden, and add to it in accordance with the establishment and development of the plants, facilitating and encouraging natural development of the desired vegetation’.

This means that when we encounter a suitable plant that serves our aim, we add it, giving time and attention to natural establishment of the plants, and not allowing undesirable plants to take over. ‘On one hand we allow nature to do its thing, and on the other hand we help it at the beginning until the garden reaches a natural equilibrium’.

Helvitz views nurturing wildflower gardens as a mission. ‘Most of the public tends to think that wildflower gardens look amazing during winter and spring, while in summer and autumn they are dry and unattractive. We want to show that if we plan the garden wisely using suitable plants with the right composition, the garden becomes variable, interesting and beautiful during all months of the year’. Such a garden also supports high biodiversity, including plants, insects, bees, butterflies and more, particularly when it is managed without using pesticides.

The bottom line is that we can nurture a garden based on local wildflowers that will be attractive during most months of the year; the renovated Iris Garden is a great example of this.

You’re welcome to come and visit! Now, while the irises are flowering, and all year round!