Tips for Iris and a Mystery Flower

Sunday was a day of gardening bliss. My husband and I thought we'd head out to a gardening centre to the east of us, but when we got there, it was closed. We decided to drive along a country road to the north of us, as I was pretty sure I had seen a gardening centre along there in the past. We saw a small sign for a perennial garden centre up another country road, so we followed the sign which led us to Stricklands Perennial Farm! If you're in the area, we were in north Bowmanville (there are directions to the farm in the link to their website).

It was a surprise to drive into a well-maintained front garden area complete with wide grassy lawn and dry riverbed feature (sorry, I didn't take photos of it). This is a family run farm, and we were told they are open every day of the week. All of the perennials were so lush and green and healthy looking. The gentleman who greeted us told us where to find the plants, and that he was available for any questions. After we browsed around and had our plants chosen, I picked his brain about iris. I have some beautiful iris in my front garden (now blooming!), but the iris in my back garden are suffering and many are not even blooming this year. These are the iris in the front garden ...

And these are two of only a few blooms in the back (even the flower is stunted) ...

Mom's favourite black iris not looking so spectacular

I love iris, and since these are all from my mom's garden, I really need them to survive. These flowers mean so much to me.  Well, the man told us that the biggest mistake people make about iris is to cover the corms. The corms need to be exposed to the sunlight directly. I wasn't sure if all the corms on my iris were exposed, but I knew some of them were. If they are covered, just brush the dirt gently off the corm with your hand. Also, iris need well-drained, sandy soil ... they don't like a lot of mulch or manure. Don't water them too much, they do better in dry conditions. They need full sun, and if you separate the corms, or move them, do this in August. Also, if they develop a fungus on the leaves, you can treat this with cinnamon sprinkled directly onto the plant leaves. The cinnamon acts as a fungicide. I told him I was considering moving the iris right away to get them into the garden where they are doing well, but he warned that this is the worst time to move any plants while they are flowering. He said to be patient and wait to the end of August to move them, otherwise they will suffer and die back. I hope they survive till then, but at least I have a bit of info to go on. And just in case they don't, I picked up a new iris 'Ziggy' and popped (... Ziggy Pop! ha ha) it into the front garden right away. This is one of my favourite colour combinations for iris.

We also bought two other flowers for the front gardens, both in white. The first is gay feather 'Alba' (liatris spicata). Since all the flowers in the front garden were all purple this year (unintentional), I thought a bit of white might look nice. These flowers are tall white spires, which are yet to bloom. I do hope they bloom this year. Right now it just looks like a Muppet!

The front garden ... purple balloon flower, purple lupins, purple iris, purple spiderwort ...

The second flower is moss phlox 'Snowflake' for the garden alongside the steps and walkway to the front door. It should fill in a bit bigger by next spring. Looks like I still have room for another plant (or two) there!

up close

I also transplanted this little mystery flower from where it had sprouted up behind our garden shed. It's not one of my flowers, but I was happy to give it a better spot. It looks sort of like a geranium in the leaves, but the flower is very different. It is a low slightly mounding flower. Do you recognize it? I'd love to know what it is.

UPDATE!

Thank you everyone for helping in my search for the name of this mystery flower. We were all right that it was of the geranium family, and I checked out all the names you all supplied, but each one was just a tiny bit different to my flower. Anne of Design Dreams by Anne has been able to find the exact geranium species. It is a Geranium Macrorrhizum. I googled the name and came up with the image below, which you have to admit is an exact image of my own photos above. Thanks Anne! And thanks everyone for taking the time to send me your geranium names. I'm so glad that this wasn't a weed ... much too pretty ;) 

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geranium_macrorrhizum

I had quite a busy day of gardening on Sunday, but I won't load it all into one post. This is the best time of year for my garden, so there are lots of flowers to show. I'll just leave you with this pretty view looking the opposite way from the pond and you can see my son's beautiful clematis growing up the arbour he and his dad made a few years ago. I love this little garden spot in the yard :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy