Thursday, October 13, 2011

A Cool Plant!

Its Spring here in Melbourne and all the plants are starting to look beautifully up at the sunshine. As are the weeds too sadly ....but thats life! When you talk to a gardener about Spring, bulbs spring to mind often Daffodils and Jonquils but further into Spring the best bulb of all flowers, ( in my humble opinion!)

A gorgeous plant which i have in my garden which flowers really well at this time of year and seems to flower for ages, is the Bearded Iris or Iris Germanica here is the first for the year!

With its elegant blue green foliage and beautifully delicate blooms these plants are deceptively tough. My friend Yvette gave me some when we were studying about 4 years ago when we were in the middle of a severe drought and I have to say they have really done well all things cosidered. So much so that i went and bought some more. Its a real survivor, and comes in so many gorgeous colours, and now is also available in a dwarf form .

They keep on keeping on and I have actually  taken them out and divided them and they still happily prosper.  To survive in our garden is really no mean feat especially with two dogs and chickens scratching around. But the Irises are managing to do it. As the name would suggest they are an European bulb and so tolerate quite cold soil, but surprisingly this plant also tolerates our very hot summers so long as it gets some watering. It seems to die back a little around late summer Autumn when it's time to dig them up and divide them. Then put them back in some humus rich, well drained soil and up they'll come in the spring time once again.


 And please remember, comments inspire me so please feel free to ....

2 comments:

  1. I love Irises! I have 3 different kinds in my garden, and I plan on adding more! The survive the winter here in Alaska, coming back thicker and healthier every year, and they are so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for reading Jamie, I think they might be called the chameleons of the bulb world!

    ReplyDelete

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