When Iris Blooms are Smiling!

I was happy to see Mom's iris all doing really well this year.  Here's the second one to bloom ...

 

 

I had been hoping to have a few of her old-fashioned varieties that she transplanted from her mother, which were rusty browns.  Unfortunately, it would appear that all the buds on these iris are purple.  Which is still nice, I just had my fingers crossed ... you know how it is ;)

 

One of my favourite flowers is the columbine ... and in particular, this larger pink and white variety.  I don't keep track of the exact names of the flowers, so you'll have to excuse me there.  Lately, all I seem to find popping up in my garden have been the tiny dwarf flowers in columbine (and they pop up everywhere!), but then this larger flower appeared along the back fence ... surprise!!

Below is one of the dwarf columbine flowers, which are really quite tiny and I'm not that fond of them.  Up close in the macro setting of the camera they look quite pretty, but unless you want to carry a magnifying glass around the garden with you, it's difficult to see their charms ...

 

... especially when their tiny heads hang upside down and you have to lie on the ground to get a good shot!

 

I recently purchased two hens & chicks plants as I wanted to try growing one in the crevice of a small limestone rock I have in the garden.  Here in Ontario there is a lot of limestone, and quite a few limestone quarries (one of which was just down the road from where I grew up in Lowville).  The Niagara Escarpment is all limestone rock and it's a very craggy rock that has lots of pits and hollows, and the escarpment is full of interesting caves to crawl into (I even know where there's an underground "lake" ... really just a small pool of water, but underground! ... I'm not even sure there is still water there after many, many years).  I spent a lot of years hiking the Bruce Trail which runs the length of the escarpment, and is a real treasure to the area.  If you're ever in this part of the province, be sure to check it out. 

 

Back to present day ... on my street there are a couple of old couples that have these big rocks in their front yards with hens & chicks growing right on top of the rocks, and I thought I'd like to try that and immediately thought of the small chunk of limestone I have. 

 

 

 So I pushed the big fat hen gently into the crevice, and have carefully watered it every day to keep it from drying out (maybe misting would be better so that I don't wash away the dirt before the roots have established themselves). 

 

 

 

Now I just have to sit back and watch and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  I guess I won't really know if this is working until next year.  The final test ... will it survive the winter?! 

Gardening can be so slow, can't it?!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

Linking up with Fishtail Cottage and her Cottage Garden Party #5