Plant in full sun to light or moderate shade and give little to abundant irrigation (in other words, it is not fussy!) and in shade it is actually a very drought tolerant plant. It is also cold hardy to at least 15 degrees F and can recover from colder temperatures with just foliage burn that needs to be trimmed back. We have seen this plant listed as a pond margin plant but have not tried this ourselves. A great garden plant in the dry shade garden - our plants under established coast live oaks rarely if ever are watered and have spread slowly into large clumps. The seed retain their color and attachment together within the fruit as it dries and can be cut and used in dried arrangements that last for years.

Iris foetidissima is native to southern and western Europe and North Arica. The genus Iris gets its name from the Greek goddess Iris, who was goddess of the rainbow. In Greek mythology, Hera, who was Queen of Olympia, was impressed by Iris' purity and honored her with a flower that bloomed with all the colors in her robe. This species was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 using the specific epithet combining the Latin word 'foetid' meaning "stinking" or "bad smelling" with the superlative suffix ' issimus' meaning "the most so" or "to the greatest degree" which implies this must have been a plant Linnaeus thought really stunk, and other common names such as Stinking Iris, Roast-beef Plant and Stinking Gladwin all seem to back this up. But while the crushed foliage has a rich beef-like aroma, it is pretty mild and only present when the leaf is really crushed. Other common names using "Gladwin" in its various spellings, including Gladdon and Gladwyn, come from the word Gladen which meant sword-grass and was derived from the Latin word 'gladius' (think gladiator) in reference to the long linear leaves of the plant.

Gladwin Iris was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1994. We have grown this interesting and useful plant at our nursery since 1989 and we have many plants scattered about in the nursery garden. 

The information about Iris foetidissima displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant.