Monday, May 28, 2012

The Sun Arrived!

What a difference a week, or there abouts, makes.  I went from wearing socks and boots to baring my feet in sandals practically over night!  And flowers seemed to open over night too, I'm sure the ceanothus went from no flowers to this in 24 hours.


And the irises have opened too.  For the first time since I bought them the two Cedric Morris ones have opened together (in previous years it's been one or the other), and they actually look quite nice together.



















By the pond this iris Siberica has also opened, I like how delicate they are.


But my real favourite are these ones, and there are masses of them this year!


I've no idea what they're called as I inherited them.  In previous years I've been lucky to get 2 flowers, but I moved them last summer and they obviously like their new spot. 

 
They are so dark they're almost black, except when the sun shines through them and they turn this gorgeous purple.  I do have a bit of a thing about dark flowers!

13 comments:

dottycookie said...

I adore dark flowers too, especially dahlias. I managed some dramatic dark tulips this year, the first year they haven't been attacked by squirrels!

Anonymous said...

Love irises too... I have one opened which is blue, brown and yellow... quite a large flower but incredibly beautiful.... makes you want to be a painter! But I have masses of clumps (after dividing one rather large one) of the blue iris Siberica. All open, though with the forecast for Norfolk being ten degrees lower tomorrow than today, poor plants will wonder what's going on! And at the moment there are some ominous dark clouds coming in, the first time in a week or more that the clear blue skies and orangey/peachy sunset has been hidden. Maybe we will get the thunderstorms.....
Love your garden, it's as shambolic as ours! And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Miriam Weaver said...

You have such a beautiful garden! I too went from boots to sandals in a day. This afternoon we had a very black sky hardly any rain but a lot of thunder and lightening! And tonight we had a BBQ, what is going on with this weather?????

Julie said...

Your garden is beautiful as are the irises. They are among my favourite flowers. Mine are all leaf so far :(

Rustic Vintage Country said...

Beautiful flowers! Temperatures manic! x

Amanda said...

Lovely photos. I posted an Iris sibirica yesterday too, aren't they lovely? Love the leopard print throat. Unfortunately the puppy seems to have demolished the more showy ones we have. There's always next year in gardening!!!

elaine said...

I had better go and check my iris siberica - they were all leaf when I last looked, they were split and re-planted last year - so they may not flower this year - I don't know much about their habits I'm afraid.

Anonymous said...

My irises have thrown up such a lot of flower spikes this year that I am seriously impressed, they are perfumed too so I'm enjoying them a great deal.

Fibre frenzi said...

LOVE the irises!

Reading Tea Leaves said...

The sun makes all the difference doesn't it and your garden looks like it has a really open sunny aspect. Spectacular irises, mine are slowly coming to life.

Yes, the boots are off ... for now:-)

Jeanne
x

Jo said...

It's cold enough here today to put my socks back on but I'm resisting, I'm hoping that we get some decent weather back for the Jubilee bank holiday weekend. I love iris's, those Cedric Morris ones really do compliment each other, but I can see why the unknown variety are your favourites, they're gorgeous.

Anna said...

Those Cedric Morris irises are beautiful Su - such glorious colours. He was from your part of the world I think. Where did you find them?

French Nanny said...

I think irises may be my favourites - certainly here in France, where they survive the dry summers and the sometimes cold and snowy winters!