Well, clearly, this is a thread in which I should participate! <g>
Becky, Iris is one classic flower that, in the wild, grows in wetlands. Of course, many varieties have been bred to prefer drier soil, but if you find a knowledgeable person at a good nursery or catalogue, they should be able to lead you to tubers that love the wet!
Also, I assume that you've considered alternatives such as adding mulch and topsoil to raise your beds a few inches to a foot above the damper soil below...this will often help prevent flooding that can cause the roots to "drown."
Here are some other perennials that one of my reference books include in "moist to wet soil" category. I don't even know what some of these are, but many are familiar. Check to see if they will grow in your zone:
hollyhock
columbine
wormwood
goatsbeard
sweet woodruff
astilbe
English daisy
heart-leaved bergenia
Siberian bugloss
pink turtlehead
Kamchatka bugbane
fringed & common bleeding heart
gas plant
foxglove
Caucasian leopard's bane
dropwort
gentian
Barberton daisy
Chilean avens
sneezeweed
Heliopsis
Christmas rose
Dame's rocket
coral-bells
rose mallow
fragrant plantain-lily
goldflower St. John's wort
Japanese, yellow flag, and Siberian iris
big blue lily-turf
purple loosestrife
pink plume poppy
bee balm
dwarf perpetual forget-me-not
blue cupflower
dwarf lily-turf
Canada phlox
garden phlox see this month's Martha Stewart's Living--yup, I read it! It's all about phlox
Jacob's ladder
Himalayan primrose
Japanese primrose
polyanthus primrose
blue lungwort
pincushion-flower
lavender mist meadow rue
Virginia spiderwort
Ledebour globeflower
viola
pansy
Happy gardening!
}=>-------->>>> |
