iris

IMG_0265.jpgA few days ago I was talking about "rescuing" plants. This iris was rescued a couple years ago from an abandoned garden at a property that had been donated to our church. Eventually the whole site will be bulldozed for a new building. For now the garden is just a hindrance to the grounds crew who have to mow around it.

This plant bloomed the first year after I planted it and then I decided to move it again. I read in one of Scott Ogden's books that it preferred a damp shady environment. Last year it did not bloom at all, and I was afraid I had made a mistake in relocating it. I was very surprised to look out the window this afternoon and see the flower.

It's the first of my irises to bloom. The flower like the foliage is slender and delicate. The fans die back all the way to the ground in the winter.

Posted by Bill Hopkins on March 12, 2004 09:06 PM
Comments

How delightful that you have flowers blooming already. Here in Missouri the plants are just now starting to peek through the ground. My lawn man is coming next week to help me enlarge my butterfly garden so that I will be able to plant more milkweed in order to attract more monarch butterflies this summer. I had one monarch lay her egg & develop into a mature monarch last summer so I am enlarging the garden to have more monarchs lay their eggs. I have one black swallowtail butterfly chrysalis overwintering on a tree in the backyard- it will mature & emerge in the spring when the warm weather arrives. I photogragh these processes as they develop. Once again, I enjoy your blog.

Posted by: MsQua at March 12, 2004 11:06 PM

Isn't it wonderful to get a bloom from a rescue? Nice job!

Posted by: orchidophile at March 13, 2004 04:40 PM

Wow -- I actually have the very same plant and it's also my first to bloom. I'm going to divide mine this year. I was glad to have remembered to plant the rhysome (sp?) very shallowly (is that even a word?). It's a beautiful plant.

Posted by: Leslie at March 14, 2004 01:51 PM

I'm just not sure it's a Siberian iris, though. It looks more like a Dutch iris to me. I grow Siberians but I don't grow Dutch iris, but it looks like photos I've seen of Dutch iris. I suppose it could even be Louisiana iris, which like the South and are native, but I've only seen photos of those, too. What in particular made you think it was a Siberian iris?

Posted by: Kathy at March 17, 2004 07:44 AM

Thanks for the information Kathy. I am going to change the entry until I can research this more. I don't want anyone reading this to get wrong information.

Anybody know for sure which it is?

Posted by: bill at March 19, 2004 11:26 AM

There are lots of iris photos here: http://www.allthingsiris.com/ ,but not of the Dutch iris, which are sold in the fall, apparently. This one, at another site, looks a lot like yours: http://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/cgi-bin/bulbs2/28-0107?id=MeQJuvRs&mv_pc=177

Posted by: Kathy at March 19, 2004 05:00 PM