Irises, SoS, October 22, 2022.

There used to be an Iris farm not far from us, but it closed down a couple of years ago. I liked going sometimes to choose an iris or two to plant in my garden. The proprietor would carefully write the name of the iris in black pen along one of the plant’s strappy leaves, and I would take it home and just as carefully plant it, neglecting (are you surprised?) to record the name.

This means I have only unnamed irises in the garden. I am posting six of them for this week’s Six on Saturday. If you would like to see what other gardeners have in their gardens – perhaps named irises, who knows?- don’t hesitate to follow this link to our new leader Jim at Garden Ruminations and check them out.

One: Honey and a good Shiraz (both found in abundance in this area) in colour make this iris a delicious combination.

Two: Elegantly understated.

Three: Persian blue: the ancient blue of the Silk Road.

Four: Golden in the sunlight, a brief sunny spell.

Five: Palest of blues with the first bud of Rosa ’Radox Bouquet’ in the background.

Six: Similar to number two, but certainly more abundant.

Perhaps another SoSer is an iris aficionado and is able to supply some names for these beauties, who knows? Since there are over 300 different species one would have to be a committed iris fancier to know even some of them.

Rain has continued in abundance for the last two weeks. Serious floods are occurring in parts of NSW and Victoria and yet again, we are seeing footage of people who have lost everything as their homes have been inundated. Many roads are full of potholes or have been swept away altogether. I fear this flood damage is going to cost the country even more than the bush fires did.

Here, the river, many times its usual size, has been over its banks a few times, but we’ve been lucky that there has been no serous damage.

Weather today: Grey. 14 – 23 degrees C.

Oh, did I sneak another iris in? Who would have thought? Enjoy your garden, everyone.

36 Comments Add yours

  1. A lovely selection of Irises. That first one has a wonderful colour combination. The labeling thing made me chuckle. I always mean to label my new plants once plonked in the ground. I never do and I rarely remember what they are unless I’ve featured them as an SoS soon after planting and can find mention of them.

    1. Jane says:

      Thank you, Graeme, I think number one is my favourite as well. I have kept all the labels from my other plants in a box so I can refer to them when I do a blog as I can’t remember all the botanical names. Names on leaves are another thing; about as useful as a rubber trowel.

  2. fredgardener says:

    I’m like Graeme, I rarely tag plants once they’re in the ground but I use this WordPress blog and Twitter to remember varieties through photos. The photos of your irises are wonderful, and what a beautiful variety you presented to us this morning!

    1. Jane says:

      Thank you, Fred. The irises are bringing joy to us and giving me nearly a full time job removing slugs and snails!

  3. Your iris are doing so well. I am bad at marking my plants, but have started paying more attention since starting my blog. Sorry to hear about all the flooding.

    1. Jane says:

      Hi Judy, it seems as though not labelling plants is a failure for many gardeners! I have kept all my labels though, in a box so I can refer to them when I do a post. I’m hopeless at remembering the botanical names.

  4. paolsoren says:

    I love these irises. There is a discarded mining town near Ballarat and there are no buildings left – nothing. But there are irises that must be at least one hundred years old. Not a great variety but an amazing sight at the right time of the year.

    1. Jane says:

      That would really be something to see. We are supposed to divide irises after a certain time, but there they are flowering undisturbed for all those years.

  5. Who’s counting?! I love iris and yours are magnificent. I love the story about the nursery owner writing on the leaves, makes sense until …… 😀 Stay safe and dry x

    1. Jane says:

      Thank you Gill, another three inches of rain overnight, so those irises are now slightly pulpy. I just managed to snap them in time!

  6. Rosie Amber says:

    My Australian buddy has been showing all her Iris too, they really are a colourful flower.

    1. Jane says:

      There seem to be unlimited colours. A wonderful flower.

  7. Heyjude says:

    Irises are delightful no matter what the name, number two is a very lovely dusky lavender colour though the orange flowers seem to want to get into the photo (Are they Geum Totally Tangerine?). I log my plants on the blog when I get a new one and scrub out the ones that have died.

    1. Jane says:

      You’re correct, Jude, it is a TT Geum which wants to rule the roost. I didn’t know they could be so big and unruly. Overdue for a division, I think.
      I have most of the labels from my plants safely in a box, to aid in ID, the irises are the only plants consistently (persistently, it could also be said) incognito.

  8. Kris P says:

    Named or not, your Iris collection is beautiful, Jane. I especially love the dramatic coloring of the first one. I’ve planted numerous bearded Iris in my garden but, ever since the drought became a serious problem here, I’ve seen fewer and fewer blooms. I’m giving one group of “rebloomers” extra water now in the hope that I’ll see the flowers that were mostly absent earlier in the year sometime this fall. Pacific Coast Iris are more reliable here.

    1. Jane says:

      I had to look Pacific Coast irises up. They are stunning, and just as beautiful as the bearded ones. A desire for a new plant is upon me! My irises were fine during our drought. I have read that bearded irises should be divided as the the flowers tend to be smaller and fewer after a time. I wonder if that would solve your problem, although someone has commented about a large spread of very old ones that have never been touched, so who knows?

  9. I love German Iris and never knew the names of any of them when I had them in the garden. Beautiful.

    1. Jane says:

      So many irises to know about, one could devote one’s whole garden to them!

  10. Helen Jones says:

    Labelling my plants is on my ‘to do’ list but, like you, I only have unnamed irises as they came from other people who also had no clue what they were called!
    Sorry to hear about the floods & the people so badly affected, it makes me appreciate what I’ve got.

    1. Jane says:

      Yes, receiving plants from other people does often create a gap in knowledge. I have kept almost all of my plant labels, but names written on leaves are another matter.

  11. I love those Iris and numbers one and two are particularly stunning. It’s impossible to keep up with the labeling anyway. I try my best and then the birds pull them out or the writing fades. We hadn’t seen news of the flooding over here (the news being rather full of politics!). I hope the weather returns to more normal conditions soon.

    1. Jane says:

      Our news is largely full of your politics as well! I think we’ll have to wait a while for normal weather conditions to resume as we’ve been told La Niña is to be with us for some time.

  12. Prue Batten says:

    Hi Jane. Lovely collection of irises. Glad too to hear you are avoiding the Big Wet. We have relatives and friends along the Murray-Goulburn and the news is bad.
    We’re totally over La Nina. Three years is two years and 51 weeks too long!
    Gardening is always done in a rush on one of the two dry days we might get in any week, which is why I’ve become very tardy with SoS. Cheers.

    1. Jane says:

      Hello Prue, nice to hear from you. I agree about La Niña, have just been today to see our small river after last night’s rain (which occurred after I posted my six) and it’s now massive. Many roads closed around the area and some evacuations in place. So perhaps our town is not avoiding it as much as we thought.
      Those beautiful irises are rather mushy now!

  13. NICE! Strange to see iris this time of the year. We had our first frost!

    1. Jane says:

      We didn’t get much frost this year, and our winter was warmer and shorter than usual. Perhaps yours will be too!

  14. germac4 says:

    Lovely to see your beautiful Irises, and I really hope they are not squashed down by this perpetual rain! So sorry to read your river is almost flooding through the town….dreadful! On a more positive note, I love all your Irises, but the gorgeous yellow Iris that you managed to photograph in the sunshine is my absolute favourite. Best wishes for an end to this rain.

    1. Jane says:

      Thank you Gerri. You’ve no doubt seen some of the flooding on TV. On Sunday, we had massive flooding through Mudgee and some people had to evacuate. Many towns much worse off than us, though.
      It was lucky I took the photos of the irises when I did, because by Sunday they looked quite sorry for themselves.

      1. germac4 says:

        best wishes for sunny weather

  15. What beautiful irises, I had forgotten what lovely plants they are. I don’t know any names but I expect Jim will. We will be having floods here soon if the rain continues as it is just now. I’m thinking back to the floods we had 15 years ago when, surprisingly, we didn’t have any tap water for a fortnight due to the local water station being flooded. 🤔 Tomorrow’s forecast is better though.

    1. Jane says:

      Yes, Granny, they are plants that keep on giving year after year. There are so many of them: I went online to try and ID mine, but I was unable to, so many of them and some very similar, but different!

  16. Cathy says:

    They are all lovely, especially the pale and the dark blues. Sorry I can,t help with the ID. Hope your part of the world dries up a bit soon… you must have got all the rain we didn’t get this summer!

    1. Jane says:

      Thank you Cathy. The rain has finally stopped for the time being, but there have been serious floods everywhere since I wrote my post. Glad you enjoyed the irises!

  17. Beautiful Irises, number 2 is my favourite but I also like 1 and 5 very much.

    1. Jane says:

      Thank you. Number two has been very popular!

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