When we moved here in late May 07, I really didn’t have time to keep track of what was blooming. However, I did notice we had several different bearded irises. Evidently one of the previous owners was an iris lover who has blessed us with some beauties and also started me on the road to iris counting and collecting.
Yesterday the very first iris bloomed. Yipee!!
She is a beauty! She’s 8 inches tall. She’s so special being the first to bloom here at Happy Acres.
Since the previous owners had not liked yard work, most of the landscaping, fruit trees, blueberries, and flower beds had not been taken care of for several years. In the main iris bed so many of the irises didn’t bloom because they were packed in so tight from years of being neglected. I was sure there were more than a few dozen varieties on our property. So in 2008 I started digging up the main iris bed. After cleaning up just a third of the bed, I replanted that area with 12 of the irises I had removed. The remaining irises, numbering around 100, were potted for the May 09 plant sale, given away, or planted in my iris holding area.
My whole idea of the holding area was to give the irises room to grow and once they all bloomed I’d be able to identify them and move them to other areas of Happy Acres or pot them for the annual plant sale.
Last May it was so much fun to see my holding area come alive with a variety of different irises. However, since only about half of them bloomed and due to working on other projects including coordinating the biennial master gardeners garden walk, I didn’t get around to labeling all of the bloomers.
In Spring 09, I worked on the second third of the iris bed and added more irises to the holding area. The last third I still need to work on. However, it looks like that area is just full of these sweet early ones!
For the past two years I’ve taken one picture of each variety, numbered it, and recorded it in my iris journal. Last year my count totaled 27. However, there were some irises I had purchased or were given to me that didn’t bloom. My goal this year is to identify every one of the irises that blooms.
So yesterday marked the official start of my iris count. I can’t wait to see who shows their beards this year!
Hello there! Just found you and love it! The name says it all and happy say, this is me too! Can’t wait to come back and explore!
Cindy Sue, Thanks so much for dropping by. Hope to “see” you again soon.
I love irises! I have little dwarf irises in my front beds that have popped already. They aren’t bearded (maybe Siberian?) but I have some bearded irises around the back of the house. There’s an iris farm near here; your holding are reminds me of their fields. I love to drive by when they’re blooming!
Watch your iris closely, Hummingbirds love Iris!
Michelle, I’ve never seen hummingbirds around the irises. However, I’ve seen them around hubby’s butterfly area and the bird feeders. But then I never looked for them around the irises!
Angela, I went to an iris farm near here last summer and my holding area does kind of remind me of her farm on a much smaller scale. But hers wasn’t as weedy as mine! You’ve reminded me that I need to divide those Siberians in the front. Ugh! I planted a couple more of different Siberians around the yard but they haven’t come up.
The Iris is a very beautiful flower…I wish they bloomed more often. I didn’t know hummingbirds like them.
Monica, They are pretty. It’s nice to have a variety which then bloom from mid April through May. I had that one rebloomer that bloomed in October. I’ve got several others but it was their first year so they didn’t bloom last year. I’m hoping I’ll have several bloom in fall this year.
Lynda, Loved reading about the irises and all of the loving work to bring those irises back to their blooming glory. I love an iris bloom!! Your holding area may be “temporary”, but it would lure me to visit it often, waiting for the April-May bloom period.
I believe your dwarf iris is Cherry Pop. I have quite a few clumps of Cherry Pop which fits your size description, the basic color I see, and mine are also blooming now. If you’d like a close up of mine, email me. It may give you a match when comparing the veining, beard, etc. Mine was a purchase about 7 years ago, so it was labeled.
PS Is your pale pink Beverly Sills?
Lynn, The holding area may come to be my own little iris farm. I love when it blooms and it should really bloom this year.
I’ll email you. I’d love to have a name for it! It is burgundy and has purple to burgundy beards. That pale pink is Cherib Smile.