Several years ago when I was planning my gardens, I had a vision of a sea of blue Siberian irises in the front yard. I love the graceful beauty of the Siberian with its flowers poised like resting butterflies on tall, reed-like stems. I was able to purchase a few clumps that first year and over the past four years, they have multiplied and I have spent many hours in the fall dividing and transplanting them.
The second year of my gardens, I decided to buy a few Bearded Iris, cobalt in color, to put in a "memory garden" in honor of the little old lady who lived across the street from me when I was a little kid. I loved Gramma Bess....and spent many hours with her talking about her early history. She was the wife of a Maine "lighthouse keeper" and during the winter of 1919 lost her husband to the flu epidemic. On an island, off the coast of Maine, Bess, a mother of two young children, put her husband in "deep freeze" till spring break-up. In the twenties, she married a Carverite and moved to our town. Her tales of Maine fueled my imagination as we worked in her garden dead-heading the bearded irises she loved. Though I loved the cobalt blue irises, after the first year I decided to diversify and add a few more colors.
Irises bloom in late May/early June....such a short time....but like Lady Bess, their fragrance is stored in the memory bank of a little girl who kept Bess company as she worked in HER gardens. I wonder if years from now Julia or Sage will have irises in their gardens?
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Comments: 55
Beautiful! I love Siberian iris with their rich color and pleasing blooms. Bearded iris - not so much. Your gardens are just beautiful, and I'm sure your granddaughters will always think of you when they see irises. Nice thought, isn't it?
In the beginning, like you, I preferred Siberian over Bearded....but the last year or two I have grown fond on the latter.
They are all beautiful Bob. What an amazing sight it must be to walk into your garden.
They are beautiful flowers.
The iris catalogs make one want to plant them all! Ours are still in the closed bud stage. One year Barbara divided some old fashioned iris, gave away a bushel, discarded others. The following year, iris came up in the lawn wherever she had walked with the bushel basket!
What gorgeous irises, the colors are magnificent!
Definitely a good bed of Irises! By the way, our little patch of Blue Flag in the Aspen grove in the quarry at Ballard Park has gone past its prime. Now it's time to watch for the Daisies and Asters and Thistles out in the meadow.
You know how I love thistle, Roy.
What a beautiful garden. I remember growing up that almost every garden had Irises in many varieties and colors. Your garden takes me back to those times.
Thanks so much for sharing with my group.
You are right...in the fifties, if one had a garden in New England, it was filled with Irises.
I love the smell of Iris's too. Great pictures~
what a great essay! The flowers are beautiful & I'm positive Julia & Sage will have Irises!
You have a beautiful garden, and your Irises are just lovely! You got some beautiful captures of the array of colors.
Thanks Denise...I really had too many...I think I took 117 pictures of my Irises....then it was a matter of choosing which to use in the photo/essay...I hate when I do that.
Glorious flowers, colors, and photos.
I admire all Irises, and all Iris growers.
These are stunning! Great pictures.
I have fond memories of a garden in my childhood and it had irises in it too. She was an old lady a good friend of my grandma's and I loved to go along for visits as a kid. She had the most amazing garden.
Maybe that's where I got my love for gardening. The only other garden was one I used to walk by on the way home from school and I always stopped and marvelled, wishing I could be in that garden. It was part garden, part meadow and part fruit orchard with mostly stone walls around it, except for the garden gate which was iron and I'd stand there looking every day:)
Beautiful, Bob
We managed to get some blue irises to grow and bloom here...not sure which kind they are.
Elisabeth, this is a really great photo essay. The pictures are just beautiful.
Thanks.
Magnificent flowers, Bob!
I love all iris. They look so glorious in their finery.
Beauties all. A great photo album.
Grandmother loved iris. Mother loved iris, and so do I. Each time mine bloom, I remember my dear ones who came before me and left a beautiful legacy for me to enjoy! I'm almost certain your grand daughters will share those kinds of feelings whenever the iris bloom in their lives!
Thank you for your kind words.
Sistah Bob - I've been on the Iris kick lately and this post was so beautiful and inspiring. You have some wonderful colours and I really would love to plant many irises here - I wasn't aware they only bloomed a few weeks but when they do it's very special...great story and a lovely way to carry on a memory! Salud
Alas....Irises bloom for just a few weeks...sad but true.
A truly beautiful photo essay and such lovely Blue Iris's I wish mine would bloom like that but they never do.
Thanks April for stopping by to comment.
Elizabeth, your iris garden is beautiful ,I love your home and yard . I especially like the dark blue one about 3 or 4 photos from the end ,gorgeous!
The cobalt blue irises are my favorite, too.
Thank you ,Elizabeth .Cobalt blue is the shade I was groping for . So pretty.
You must know my delight with this post, since you'd read all about my little Iris Cat. And how kind of you to say you'd take her if we lived closer. She gets her stitches out tomorrow from spaying. Loves to have her belly rubbed. Kitties are in another home and being adopted.
I can imagine you digging and dividing all your plants, a real work of love. Your narrative and photos are wonderful, Bob. I love knowing the history of beds of flowers.
I'm glad the babies are now all adopted....will you be keeping little Iris?
Oh, I wish I lived closer...
Ah Ha! Meet you in PA. :)
This is a BEAUTIFUL photo essay both for the thoughts on the thread of lives and also the photos of the irises. Memories seem to make the flowers even more exquisite. You have lovely clusters of them. I like the way they are nestled in among the hostas and may follow behind you on that. I'd never really thought to do that before, but after seeing yours, and how pretty they are, would like to do the same.
I love roses today because of the lady across the street from my grandmother who would tell me about her rose bush with such enthusiasm, and encourage me to smell the roses. Early childhood is where we either teach a child to flourish or cripple them for life. I bet Sage and Julia will follow in your footsteps. Maybe even with the decendents of your very own irises. We have lilies from my mother-in-law who had lilies from her grandmother who had lilies from her mother in South Carolina. It is such an awesome thought to me that these lilies reach through generations like that, and it means a lot to me.
And the circle of life goes on as we nourish the child with beauty.
I'm an iris-aholic. I haven't seen magenta but I do have a medium burgundy on the side of my house; against our gray brick. I absolutely love them & get many compliments. You've done an amazing job on your garden of love. :)
Thanks Michelle, I try.
It takes so little to create a beautiful memory for a child. My mother would have looked at your beautiful Iris and said " and some believe there is no God". She said that often about nature's beauty.
What a nice thing to say, Nancy.
I prefer the Siberian blue.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Siberia iris makes me think of Rush Limbaugh logic and I have to ask if your middle name is Natasha and do you buy meat at the local butcher from a man named Boris? He's a Russian and a hockey player spy, but only on this ice, but I guess you know that. I think I saw you wearing pink shoes. Certainly would look good on Red Square, since secretive matters still leave no excuse for poor taste in fashion. What not to wear when taking a bath should be easy. The Save The Moose For Sarah Palin Society wants to know if Boris sells moose steaks? Rocky informs me Bullwinkle is nervous about recent overheard conversations you had about marinades on a nsa tape.
Have you been on the bong again, William. Pink shoes I would never wear despite the fact some might think I'm rather pinkish in my political views.
So what color shoes do you wear when Mooses hunting?
A fantastic essay, dear Elizabeth! :-) I see these Siberian guests feel themselves quite comfortable in your garden - what a delight for eyes!
Hugs and blessings - S.
beautiful flowers
thanks for posting to Photos in Bloom