Iris Garden

   Middle of June is time for Iris to be the main flower of the garden. We have several kinds of irides. I don't know variety names for them. Some are very old plants that were grown here for at least 15 years. Like this blue Bearded Iris. It was completely overwhelmed by weeds and last year there were very few flowers. I put some effort to weed and feed it and this year it seems to be grateful.

   Next to this iris I planted 4 different Bearded Irides that I've bought on sale in the fall 2009 in Plantagen. They had no names, only pictures. Last year none of them were flowering. This year 2 of them got flowers. Although they differ from the pictures of their labels I like them anyway.



   In the same bed we have a huge old clump of some kind of Iris sibirica. This clump is about 1m in diameter and has hundreds of flowers in it. The flowers are not as big as in Bearded Irides but are very tender and look like a cloud of butterflies.

   In the fall 2009 I've planted some bulbs of Dutch Irides. They overwintered with no problem and flowered last year and to my surprise are flowering this year again. I didn't expect them to flower second year in a row since I was reading that usually Dutch Irides are not flowering more then once. I read that they are like tulips loosing their ability to flower without special treatment of bulbs after flowering. I have done nothing to those bulbs just left them in the ground. Some of them growing among tightly planted Gayfeathers Liatris spicata produced only leaves, but those that are growing freely among hostas got flowers. I have a mix of 3 varieties in white, yellow and blue colors. Blue is opening later but white and yellow are fully flowering.