Heritage Yellow Iris

Well, the Iris have finally started to bloom here at Casa IVG and they're a welcome sight to behold, even if they're a bit late this year. These yellow iris were here when we first moved in, and we consider it one of the garden's best heritage flowers ... one of the few plants we actually decided to keep when we got serious about transforming the garden into our Urban Oasis. Granted, there wasn't a lot to begin with and most of what was there we either gave away or just plain got rid of ... things like tasteless invasive oregano (the Italian variety no one should plant), Lambs Ear and dead nettle ... stuff we just didn't like that had taken over a lot of what little space was available for planting. We kept the Meadow Sage (Salvia nemerosa) and the small clump of Red Bee Balm (Monarda) and the Iris and we still have them to this day.

These yellow iris are actually native to Iowa, and we've seen them growing happily and profusely in countryside ditches, along with an occasional purple one mixed in with them. As Irises go, these are nothing really fancy, but we really appreciate their presence in the garden ... the stand has had its ups and downs over the years and we've had to divide them a few times to get them to grow more vigorously and the past two years they seem to be more on the up side, which is just fine by us!