Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Resilient Beautiful Iris

I have to say that iris are one of my most treasured flowers in the garden. As I've mentioned in past years, I inherited most of my iris from my dear mom after she passed away. I dug up as many iris as I could find in her garden and brought them home. They did well the first couple of years, but then disaster struck and it seemed I was losing them all to some kind of rot. I finally transplanted all of them in 2015, and now, two years later they are blooming again. They looked spectacular!!

This one was transplanted by the squirrels I think. It's a favourite of mine and a very muted purple, which is almost a dove grey. It came up beside the patio. I'll move it in August to a better location because right now it's struggling underneath my black currant bush.



The rest of the iris bloomed in the front garden. We've had quite a nice show for the past two weeks, but now they are all finished.



In the foreground is a Korean lilac which smells amazing! The iris looked so pretty together with the delicate blooms of the lilac. I had to trim the lilac back a bit so it didn't rip into the iris stalks.






This next iris was one of my mom's absolute favourites ... a black iris. I don't know the official name, but she loved the frilled petals and the near black of the deep purple. I had four plants blooming, and each one was a slightly different shade of deep purple.







These soft purple iris have been in the front garden for a few years, they were not transplanted from the back with the rest of them.






Even though I transplanted all the iris I could find two years ago, this year I discovered twenty small iris still coming up in the back garden! They were looking so rough and they were definitely not going to flower this year, so I moved them into the front now rather than wait until the suggested August date. Some of them looked really pathetic!


The smaller plants in front (below) are some of the newly transplanted plants.


I'm not in the least worried if these much smaller iris will survive. Why? Because this is how the rest of the iris looked two years ago when I was in tears thinking I'd lost the lot of them ... 

August 2015

Seriously, if you saw these meager stocks, would you have believed they would survive?!

August 2015

August 2015

But they did, and this gardener couldn't be happier :)

June 2017
There are a few iris that did not bloom this year, and these were the iris I purchased two years ago. I think it may be because their corms got covered with dirt and bark nuggets from all the rain we've had this spring. Also I should have split the corms in August each year, and I neglected to do that. I wrote a post about the care iris need to do their best here if you're interested.

26 comments:

  1. All so pretty and lovely photos !. I have purple and white Iris growing in a wild patch of other flowers on our hill and they have been there for years never have done a thing to them and they come back every year with more in the patch . Glad you were able to save them over the years would be a shame to loose them . Thanks for sharing , have a good day and Happy Summer to you .

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  2. Love all those dark blue and purple iris! My favourite colours. And thanks for you comment on my blog; glad you enjoyed the reading!

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  3. So happy to hear that you saved your iris . . . they are so lovely:)

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  4. Oh they look glorious in your yard. They sure put on a show. I had a lot of the purple iris growing in our yard back in Texas but now that we live in New Mexico I'm having trouble getting anything to grow in this desert climate. You must enjoy spending time out there tending to all your pretty flowers.
    xx Beca

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  5. Your Irises are gorgeous. They are a very hardy plant. Many years ago, my husband dug up some extras and threw them onto a refuse pile. The next summer he called me to come and look at the Irises blooming among all the refuse.

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  6. What a beautiful display!

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  7. Your Irises are spectacular, Wendy. I cannot choose a favourite. So happy for you that your mum's Irises are flowering this year. Thank you for brightening my chilly, wintry day.

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  8. What a beautiful collection of iris flowers you have Wendy. While I have always loved the deep purple best, I do think the pale gray one is very elegant indeed. They obviously love living in your garden, and are doing so well. My few little purple iris need a bit of care, probably need to be dug up and sorted!

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  9. You have such a pretty collection of iris. I love the colors.

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  10. They are so pretty, I love the dark purple one.

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  11. Oh I love the colors of the purples. So very pretty. I want to grow me some. When is the best time to grow them? Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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  12. These are so beautiful, and extra special because they were your Mom's. They really are a bit like orchids. Such a nice display this year - so glad they are thriving for you. I planted some variegated yellow flag this year - I think they are related to iris, but like wet conditions. They are doing well - no blooms yet, but hopefully next year. Thanks for the growing tips! xx Karen

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  13. Hello Wendy, wow your flowers look so pretty and I love the purple color of them. It must of been such a happy surprise to seem them bloom. Hope you enjoy the summer.
    Julie

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  14. Oh your flowers do look so nice, lovely shades of purples.

    All the best Jan

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  15. I'm impressed by the resilience of your mom's iris and your green thumb. They're beautiful! I'm smitten with the gorgeous purple hues.

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  16. Absolutely gorgeous Wendy, you obviously have very green fingers. I don't grow irises - although I am now very tempted - but one of my neighbours has a glorious display in her front garden every year, so I get to enjoy them without any of the work or worry. x

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  17. They look stunning Wendy so beautiful, sadly they don't seem to do very well in my garden I have heavy clay soil. Have a lovely weekend.:) x

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  18. Good morning-Wendy just beautiful!! I had planted allot of iris when we first moved here but the soil was so bad which I didn't realize at the time I lost them all-I think the chipmunks and squirrels took off with them too lol your yard is lovely Hugs Kathy

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  19. Lovely lovely iris, so beautiful...
    Great pictures too!
    Love from Titti

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  20. These are beautiful! I'm so glad they survived for you. I love the soft purple/pinky ones the best, lovely! xo

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  21. They are beautiful! Black iris is my favourite too!

    -Soma

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  22. It's so nice that you are keeping your mom's irises going and there are some awesome colour combos.

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  23. SO very beautiful! It is such a delight to have something so special to remember your mother by. I love the different colours that are in your garden!

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  24. Lovely Iris!
    Can you believe I had ONE come up and bloom?
    Oh well....perhaps next year!
    Enjoy your week..
    Cheers!
    Linda :o)

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  25. Your irises are gorgeous! And how lovely that you have some from your mother.

    Blessings,

    Victoria

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