Irises in Bloom

For two weeks in May my garden puts on a fabulous show. I live in a duplex and fortunately we are on the sunny side. Our side yard gets full sun all afternoon. There is just a strip on land between the walkway and the fence. As soon as we moved in I started filling that land in with shrubs and perennials to build a privacy screen between my dining room window and the apartment parking lot next door. After five years it is really filling in.



The front of the house slopes down to the street, making most of the front yard a hill. When we moved in that hill was a garden on one side of the steps, and there was a nice collection of bearded irises growing there. Did you know that the name iris comes from the Greek word for rainbow? The previous owner's father was a collector so there was a variety of colors. I waited eagerly for the next spring to see how beautiful it would be. They never bloomed. I realized it was because the trees next door shaded that garden most of the afternoon and the irises just didn't get enough sun. In the fall I moved them over to my side yard. This was the fall that Buddy was an infant and I was hoping to adopt him. I worked my tail off putting in perennials because I was thinking I might have a baby and then a toddler in the next few years and I wouldn't have time to garden. I was right Thank God! All the ground cover, shrubs and perennials I put in that fall have filled in and covered my little yard with green growth and seasons of flowers. The irises are my favorite.



They require very little care. I need to divide them this fall because they are getting too crowded and that will cut down on the blooms next year if I don't. Anyone want a cutting? In a week or two when they finish blooming I cut back the foliage and just leave them till the fall when they will be divided. I have Black Eyes Susans growing up through them, which will be ready to bloom just as the irises are finished.



Each bloom only lasts a day or so, but they have multiple blooms coming out on each stem so the show goes on. All my life I have loved irises, but never had them so abundantly or so beautifully. What a blessing came with this house!



I am doing my Sunday Garden Stroll meme again today. If you have a garden post up in the past week I hope you will join in! Just put the URL of the particular post in the Linky below to participate. Then come back later and click on everyone else's link to take a garden tour. What is blooming and growing in your garden this week?