One of everyone's favorite Spring flowers is the iris - since I moved to the DC/Northern Virginia area, I have always looked forward to their blooming time, which is usually the end of April and beginning of May. That means that they are peaking in Alexandria, but just starting to bloom at the Hawksbill Cabin.
Our experience with irises started with a few stems at the little Linden Street townhouse - these two-toned violet ones. Starting with just a few bulbs, Mary has split them numerous times, continuously thinning them out. The result is they bloom profusely and we've been able to gift bulbs to friends. This year we have plenty in the yard, but also enough for this cut flower arrangement.
A few years back Aunt Rusti sent us a batch of bearded irises. She has a number of varieites planted in her garden in Raleigh, and she shared some of them with us. We've planted them and they are doing very well - this year it seems we will be splitting these bulbs too. The dark purple ones visible in several of the photographs are part of that group, as are these yellow ones, which have spread from a single stem last year.
Finally, we have three beds of irises out at the cabin, and we've been looking forward to their blooming to find out what we had. The color of this bunch was amazing, a red violet that tends towards orange or brown almost. Very pretty.
And there are still two beds that have not yet bloomed!
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