2021 Iris Parade

I love irises, and if you’ve been following me you know I post them every year as they appear. This year I decided to wait until they all had bloomed so I could put them all in one post. So here are the 24 irises that bloomed this year.

Since I have a large variety of irises, they don’t all bloom at the same time. I do love seeing large beds of the same color irises since they give a nice big block of color. But I also love a large variety. So later this summer I’ll be moving some of my irises together. I have several of the same iris, such as Secret Service, turn up in two different beds. When I completely redid my bed last year and added two new ones I planted them with irises from the old bed, many that did not bloom due to the overcrowding. I’ve now labeled those that have bloomed, and will be moving the same ones together. Here are the two new beds with the peony in the middle.

Here is how it looked last Fall after it was all planted.

And this is now. You see in the front where those that have bloomed are now just green leaves. The irises really grew in these new beds. Unfortunately, the right bed which you can barely see in this picture, only had three different irises bloom. The rest look healthy; they just didn’t bloom this year.

I purchased eight irises last year from Schreiners,  and they sent me two additional ones. Not all of them bloomed. Here are the new ones that did show up. Seven out of 10 is not bad.

There was one surprise. I don’t have any records of this one ever showing up here, and I ended up with three of them. She’s a beauty.

My friend Mary gave me a couple irises last  year. Only one showed up, but she’s a beauty. Her name is Change of Pace. I had one of her several years ago.

I hate to play favorites, but here are a few that returned. It was so good to see Jurassic Park this year. Last year she showed up with just one frozen bloom. She sure made up for it this year.

Some oldie but goodies showed up too. All were here when we moved to this house in 2007 except Cherub Smile which I purchased back in 2009, and Dave’s small yellow that he brought with him when we moved in.

I am happy with the parade this year, and really looking forward to who shows up next year.

I’m also really happy with the peony. I planted this two years ago. I thought for sure it was not going to make it. So glad I was wrong.

We got rid of an old iris bed several years ago which also included some old and newer peonies. We hired the landscapers to clean out the whole area, and to reseed it.  I thought when they cleaned up the area that they would dig up any irises or peonies. Nope, every year we mow down the ones coming  up. Two years ago I decided to dig one of them up and put it in the sun garden. This was before I put iris beds on either side.  The first year it didn’t do anything and I really thought it was going to die. But here it is this year looking great.

Here is a pic of where that old iris/peony bed used to be. I’ve not mowed down this peony waiting to move it to another area. It looks like it’s in the middle of the yard, which it is! This peony was at the left corner of the bed. The neighbor’s mess is the right side of the bed. Today I moved several peonies so we will again have just grass in the yard. However, I’ll still have some other peonies coming up next year again.

Here is one of the peonies I dug up today in it’s new home on the edge of the sun garden. I decided on one of the small ones (you can hardly see in this picture) that had returned from being mowed down. The large one was too hard to dig up. I’m hoping because this one has large roots that it will flower next year.

Now to move on. I’ve spent a lot of time in the sun garden, and it’s finished. Now to clean up the shade garden. And several art projects are patiently waiting some attention from me! Hope you’re having a good week.