Bearded irises in my garden

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Irises at Green Spring Gardens

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iPhoneography: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (iPhone 8Plus, Camera+ 2 app in macro mode, Snapseed2 app border)

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In my garden: Bearded iris ‘Superstition’

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Bearded iris

Bearded iris (unknown cultivar), photographed at Green Spring Gardens

Nikon D850 / Nikkor 105mm micro

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In my garden: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (Nikon D850 / Nikkor 105mm micro lens)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bearded iris

Bearded iris (unknown cultivar), Green Spring Gardens (Nikon D850, Nikkor 105mm micro)

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In my garden: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (unknown cultivar name); Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens. I counted 67 blooms of this color in my garden this morning!

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In my garden: Bearded iris ‘Edith Wolford’

Bearded iris ‘Edith Wolford’; Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens

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In my garden: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (unknown cultivar name); Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In my garden: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (unknown cultivar name); Nikon D850 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bearded iris

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Bearded iris

I think this is a dwarf or intermediate bearded iris (hybrid name unknown).

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Bearded iris

Yummy sherbet colors! This Bearded iris cultivar wasn’t labeled, so I don’t know what the name is. The colors were so delicious!

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Blooming in my garden: Bearded iris

And one more from my garden…Bearded iris (Iris germanica sp.) I have no idea which cultivar/hybrid this is.

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Blooming in my garden: Bearded iris (unknown variety)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bearded iris

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (Iris germanica sp.)

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Bearded iris, unknown variety

Bearded iris (Iris germanica), photographed at Green Spring Gardens. The parking lot was my background (and I couldn’t have that!), so I improvised by using my white tri-grip diffuser as a background. Voila!

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Bearded iris (unknown variety)

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Bearded iris ‘Megabucks’

Bearded iris (Iris germanica), photographed at Green Spring Gardens; I think this is the ‘Megabucks’ cultivar, and it’s one of the most unexpected, gaudiest (and prettiest) color combinations I’ve seen to date in a Bearded iris!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bearded iris

Bearded iris (Iris germanica), photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: 42 Bearded iris!

Here’s a “record shot” of purple and white Bearded iris (Iris germanica) in bloom in my front yard. I counted 42 total between this cluster and another smaller cluster growing in the shade at the end of the sidewalk.

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Blooming in my garden: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (Iris germanica)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Bearded iris

Bearded iris (Iris germanica) ©  Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: Bluer than blue

Originally posted 2.2.2009

Remember that 1978 hit song, Bluer than Blue, by Michael Johnson? Check out the video on youtube. Kinda low budget video, isn’t it? Ah, well, it’s the song that matters, right? Another song of his that I love is, “The Moon is Still Over Her Shoulder.”

Let’s see—I’ve received three requests in response to my “what color collage next” question. One requested a collage showing variegation. One was a request for the color teal. Uh…thanks for the challenge, gals! And the third one was for blue, which just happened to be the color I was working on! (Janof the Thanks for Today blog and I were on the same wavelength.) I’ll work on those first two (more challenging) requests, but in the interim, here’s a collage of nothin’ but blue. Blue isn’t a really common color in the garden, yet I was surprised I had enough images in that color to create this collage. I would love to be able to grow the extra-heat-sensitive-needs-cool-rainy-summers (which we don’t have in Northern Virginia) lovely sky-blue Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia), a native of southeastern Tibet.

Other blue flowers include:

Statice
Sea holly (Eryngium-–which I grow in my garden—and it is a beauty)
Hydrangea
Delphiniums
Chicory (shown below)
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella—shown below)
Cornflower
‘Heavenly Blue’ Morning Glory (shown below)
Forget-me-not
Bearded iris
Himalayan blue poppy (there are other shades of blue poppies as well)
Scabiosa (beautiful pale blue; I’ve grown them but they flop over too soon!)
Scilla
Veronica Speedwell
Globe thistle (Echinops)—I have several of these in my front garden
Muscari (grape hyacinth—some varieties lean more toward blue than deep purple)
Pride of Madeira (leans toward purple-blue—unbelievably beautiful plant—wish it would grow in our area)

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Yes, another purple Bearded Iris

At least this one is freckled! 🙂

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Blooming in my garden: Bearded Iris

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In Karen’s garden: Bearded Iris

Karen says these Bearded Iris plants have been blooming in three large pots in her backyard garden for nearly a decade. She gets fewer and fewer blooms each year because they really needed to be divided. And guess who volunteered to help her out? One, it solves her blooming problem and two, I don’t have this color in my garden!

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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Bearded Triplets

Ooooh…how orderly! (not unlike me 😉

These are just three of the 28 (yes, I counted) Bearded Iris now in bloom in our front yard garden, with many more to come…

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Blooming in my garden: Bearded Iris

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Purplelicious Installment #3

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Last year I wrote a newsletter article for the FlowershopNetwork.com. Check out “A Passion for Purple Flowers” here.

Purplelicious Installment #2

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Last year I wrote a newsletter article for the FlowershopNetwork.com. Check out “A Passion for Purple Flowers” here.

Purplelicious Installment #1

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Last year I wrote a newsletter article for the FlowershopNetwork.com. Check out “A Passion for Purple Flowers” here.

More blooms at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In bloom today at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Published: A Passion for Purple Flowers

I recently wrote an article for flowershopnetwork.com for their monthly online newsletter. All but three of the photos in the article were shot by me (shown below); the others were purchased from istockphoto.com. The Flower Shop Network Newsletter is a free monthly e-mail featuring articles based on the knowledge of floral professionals across the country. Once a month, they provide interesting information about all things floral. You can view their newsletter archive and sign up for an e-mail blast here. To read my article, click on the link below:

http://www.flowershopnetwork.com/blog/passion-purple-flowers/

It’s a jungle out there

Shot of our front yard garden taken this afternoon…

Just past bloom: White & purple Bearded Iris and Purple Sensation Allium 

Debuting now: Beard’s Tongue, Catmint, Veronica Speedwell, Creeping Thyme, Sweet William, Penstemon, Rose Campion (blush pink-white and bright pink varieties), Hellebores, Sedum, Yellow Yarrow, Nasturtium, White Dianthus, Pink Phlox, Hosta flowers, Ageratum, Evening Primrose ‘Lemon Drop’, Strawflower, Geraniums 

Very-soon-to-bloom: Globe Thistle, Lavender (various), Coreopsis, Tickseed, Lilies (various) and Salvia

And later in the season: Butterfly bush (pink, yellow, purple varieties), Coneflower (various varieties)

Platycodon Balloon Flower (purple and white varieties), Shasta Daisies, Black-eyed Susan, Monarda Bee Balm, Lamb’s Ear, Morning Glory ‘Heavenly Blue’, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Maximilian sunflower

Ha! And this is just the list of plants in the front yard. Proof enough that I’m a gardener obsessed.

Got a question for my fellow gardeners…what is the weed (looks a lot like the tops of celery plants or almost cilantro-looking leaf) that is taking over my entire garden in spades? Why have I not noticed this prolific pest in previous years? Is it a new invasive? Do I need to photograph it for identification?
  
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Bearded Iris

I just love the unusual color combination of this (unidentified) Bearded Iris. Now if there had only been a hoverfly, honeybee, spider or ant at the edge of the extended petal…maybe next time!

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Lighter shade of pale

Colors left to profile—red, green, and variegated (a reader’s suggestion)—I’ve covered orange, pink, blue, yellow and purple. Am I leaving something out?

I suppose since it’s still winter, I could cover brown, but that’s not too inspiring, is it? Might not be, but boy do I have lots of that color in the garden right now.

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Duh…more plants, of course!

Yesterday was so balmy/beautiful/blue-skied that Michael and I decided to hit Green Spring Gardens again to see if there were any (new) photographic opportunities. Here are my results from our hour+ adventure.

Green Spring Gardens: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/gsgp/

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Identify this insect and win a prize!

Yes, it’s another Bearded Iris (deal with it!). But this time, Mother Nature has added another element—a unidentified fly-thingie (a prize to the first person to identify it correctly–with proof of your research, of course). I’m fairly certain I’ve posted a photo awhile back of this same bug (at first glance, I don’t see it). I even think I successfully identified it back then. Stay tuned for further information…

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Yet another Bearded Iris

This one was blooming in my friend Rob’s garden this weekend. In my research to identify this particular Iris (I’m still stumped!), I came across this site below. Take a look at all their gorgeous Bearded Irises!

http://www.iriscitygardens.com/bearded1.html

Their main site is: http://www.iriscitygardens.com/

Growing tips: http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/bearded-iris.html

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bearded Iris

Several years ago, my friend Karen generously shared a huge box of bearded iris with us. We put the majority of the plants around our small pond in the backyard (I think they need dividing this year!) and the remainder in the front garden. I shot these images late this afternoon.

Learn about growing irises here:
http://www.flower-gardening-made-easy.com/bearded-iris.htm

There’s even a “Tall Bearded Iris Society” in Texas: http://www.tbisonline.co

Check out the varieties this company sells: http://www.schreinersgardens.com/

I feel compelled to buy this one!
http://www.schreinersgardens.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SIGO&Product_Code=MEGA

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Brookside Gardens

Jeff and I had a field trip to Brookside Gardens today. We joined Pat and Delores (coordinators) and other members from the Mount Vernon Garden Club. It was a beautiful spring day with ample photo opportunities. Thanks, Pat and Delores, for making us feel right at home with your group! Brookside Gardens is an award-winning 50-acre public display garden situated within Wheaton Regional Park in Wheaton, Maryland. Visit Brookside at http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/brookside/

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.