Friday, June 18, 2010

Japanese Iris in the Jarvis Garden

These are Japanese Iris, a white variety that  have been in the Jarvis Garden for years.  I have split the fans many times and re-planted them around the property.
The bud comes up on a very long stem, well after the typical spring German Bearded Iris are long gone.
The White Japanese Iris start to show first.  Here you can see that they are almost as tall as the common Road Side Day Lily.
 A lavender smaller iris blooms next, and looks like the common
Siberian Iris, in size and form, which bloomed out weeks ago.
The bud of a deep purple Japanese Iris is third to bloom, which
opens up like this,  and has a lovely yellow and white center.  It stands a bit shorter than the white.
 Finally the pale purple variety showed up.
All of these iris including
the Yellow Flag Iris, love wet feet.  The whites can tolerate a dry location,
but no competing ground covers or other intruding plants.  They will fade out and not bloom.  Over time some of the whites were choked out by other plants and almost disappeared.  I dug them out and re-planted them with more room and they came back with vigor.
The bloom period, of the Japanese iris is in between the Peonies and the Day Lilies.
They make a delightful display when the various colors are grouped together and inter planted between the Day Lilies.  The Jarvis Garden is very wet, where the Japanese Iris are planted, they thrive year after year, and multiply.
Japanese Iris are  great friendship garden swapping plants. This is a Cat Bird that was squawking his head off while I was taking pictures of the Iris.  He was a foot away from my head and boldly protecting his territory.  What a great bird!



2 comments:

BernieH said...

White is a colour I just love to see in a garden ... and this white iris is a stunner! It must be a knock-out in the summer sun.

The other iris that caught me eye was that gorgeous pale purple one ... so pretty. The patches of Japanese Iris all look so lovely.

Elizabeth said...

Yes, these are so super
in person and in photos
you are right that you have many varieties of each different plant
hydrangea , hosta etc etc.