Probably 25 years ago, a friend in Louisiana shared some gorgeous irises that she had retrieved from the house where she grew up. I planted them and they grew and multiplied. When Vince and I married and I moved to Kentucky, I dug up a few of each of the colors and planted them in Kentucky and they thrived. When we moved to Missouri, I again dug some up and took them with me.
In the chaos of moving from MO to here, I didn’t get any of my irises. Next time I’m in MO and after the house is sold (It’s for sale again!), I’m going to go by and see if the owners will let me dig up a few but in the meantime, when I talked about it on the blog before, a very generous reader offered to share some of her irises with me. She sent a box that was stuffed full. I planted them in a big bucket just to get them in some dirt but yesterday Vince tilled up a bed especially for my irises.
Making New Bed
He made it a little larger than I needed so I think I’ll plant a a few herbs in there.
New Bed
I’m thinking I can plant a few onions and chives. In the spring, I can plant parsley, cilantro, sage and basil. Some will be perennials, some will have to be replanted. For now, I’m going to add some acidifier because of our horribly alkaline soil, then I’ll plant the irises in groups, maybe in front of the fence posts, and then cover the rest of the bed with plastic to keep weeds from growing til spring.
I probably should wait til Thursday or Friday . . give my knee a bit of recovery time before I screw it up again! Another thing I need to do is get rid of those weeds that are tangled up in the fence. Weeds! Weeds! Weeds! That’s what I seem to grow best!
Sherrill Pecere says
Would you ask your readers for some for me?!! HAHA In my house prior to this one, I had some of my mom’s daylilies and some gorgeous iris I’d bought at a local place here. I ALSO had some iris that my DH and I had gone and saved from a house that had been demo’d. It was up for sale and I’d told Frank we needed to go save the iris but I drove by one day and the house was GONE and the lot had been scraped. I was horrified! I ran home and got hubs and we managed to locate some of the iris, dig them up and plant at the house. You’d THINK I would’ve brought some with me but did I…NO! I keep meaning to buy some purple (my faves) and a few orange but still haven’t done it. May look online. Can’t wait to see your pix!
Joyce says
i’m reducing the size of my iris beds, because I just can’t keep up with all the weeding. I’m done wanting to deal with them this year, but I’ll have some again next summer for anyone that wants them…
Valerie. Zagami says
I have my grandmother’s iris’ that I have taken to all 3 homes I have lived in. I also have her lilac bushes. This move I took holly bushes from the last house!! Nice memories..
dezertsuz says
And I never have anything left to dig up. I planted probably a dozen tulips a few years back and after two years, nothing came up again. My hyacinths are all lopsided every single year! I don’t think I can be trusted with Iris. LOL
Donna Minter says
Irises are easy to grow. Just have to NOT plant too deep.
princess says
Those are the plants I miss the most after moving to Florida — all the bulb flowers and bushes/trees that need a cold winter. 🙁