15 September 2014

An invasion of irises

A couple of days ago, Walt posted a photo of the path that had become completely overgrown with irises out by the garden shed. He had dug them all out. He did a lot of sweaty work to pry them out of the gravelly ground. Now we have the path back. Here is a link to Walt's photo.



And here are some photos that show what those irises looked like before he dug them out. I took this photo on the left last spring when the irises were in bloom.



If it's hard to tell that there is a path under the irises, well... that was the point. To the right, in a photo from June, the irises are in the lower left corner, and there's the yard and the just-planted vegetable garden in the distance.


In the photo on the right, it looks like the irises are trying to sneak up on Walt, who has his back turned to them.








After all the invading irises were pulled out, I sorted through them all, cut off the long leaves, and replanted them in a small plot of soil behind the garden shed, next to my plum tree. "Replanted" is kind of an exaggeration, since the iris rhizomes like to be right on the surface of the soil, and they spread by "creeping."


We hope the irises will take root in that new spot and fill in against the wire fence. Only time will tell. Right now, I think they look appropriately creepy.

8 comments:

  1. Iris is my favorite flower. They're so delicate and beautiful. I like the scent too.

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  2. When we lived in Connecticut, we had a small iris bed that was doing beautifully. Jerry's uncle sent us 43 rizomes from his incredible gardens in Seattle. We extended our iris bed and then unexpectedly moved to San Diego before they ever came up. They were alongside a path leading to the pool. I have a feeling they've been "thinned," as well. I look forward to seeing yours flourish in their new spot. They're such dramatic plants.

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  3. I hope they work out great-- I, too, love the iris :)

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  4. Some people in Alabama call Iris, flags. I'm not sure why. A friend gave me some in the spring and they are now standing tall after slumping for a while. I bet yours will like their new home.

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  5. Ken

    Pretty sure they will work out . Last October , I moved some from the front to the side of the yard . They flowered this May.
    Now i need to move a whole patch from the front , I need the space to put the male plant of an Ilex so that the female one can bear berries , to the back . I believe I will need the help of Y since they are tough to dislodge. I have some which are midnight black which flower two weeks after the blueish-purple ones like yours.

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  6. My sister and I both have irises from my great aunt's house in Georgia. Before the house was sold, my aunt dug some of the irises up and planted them in her yard. When she thinned them, she shared with me when I was visiting her. I mailed half of the rhizomes to my sister.
    On an unrelated subject, I read this article this morning and thought you might enjoy it: http://www.nccoast.org/Article.aspx?k=71fbe55d-8ed2-4cb5-8708-4974496ff14b&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+NCCFNews+(Coastal+Review+Online)

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  7. The thought of sneaky iris makes me smile.

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