So when I signed up to post for April 20, quite a few weeks ago, I naively thought that I would perhaps have a few flowers blooming by now; maybe even some dwarf irises. ALAS, it was not to be! As I write this, on April 16, there are remnants of our recent eight inch snowfall still lingering in the shadows. We are supposed to reach 60 degrees today, so the snow will likely be gone by this evening. But flowers? I got nothin’ but the Chionodoxa above and a few frozen tulip leaves.
So what is a gardener to do? How about a little look back at some of the best spring blooms of previous years? Spring is the season for irises, my currrent plant obsession. There are enough varieties of irises that you can have them blooming from early spring through summer. The first to bloom are the tiny Miniature Dwarf Bearded (MDB) followed by the Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB). I have many of these because they are short and prolific and do not require staking, which the Tall Beardeds often do here in the windy north.
Neither of these SDBs are new introductions, but they are among my favorites because they are reliable bloomers. The hybridizer Chuck Chapman is Canadian, so his SDBs usually do very well here. He has also hybridized rebloomers, which usually bloom again in the fall.
I don’t yet have many Border Bearded (BB) or Intermediate Bearded (IB) irises, a situation I am in the process of rectifying. The IBs bloom after the SDBs but before the TBs, and the BBs bloom at about the same time as the Talls. I want more of these two because, again, they don’t need to be staked because they are shorter. My favorite IBs in my garden right now are these two:
I do have two BBs that I really like too:
Then come the big guys, the Tall Bearded and they are easy to fall in love with. My iris obsession started when I saw THIS iris at a local nursery. It cried out to me, “BUY ME!! BUY ME!!” So I did.
My love affair with the Tall Beardeds has waned in recent years, since they are so attractive to iris borers and, as already mentioned, often need staking. I don’t have time for that anymore, so I have not ordered any new TBs for several years. But I still have many of them in the garden and here are a few of the best clumps from the past two to three years.
I won’t discuss the beardless irises now, but they will bloom after the TBs. If you are interested in seeing a great many more iris photos and more than you could possibly want to know about irises, check out our local iris society website here.
I thought it would be fun to try the polling feature. Hope it works!
What is happening in your gardens today?