Tag: west berm

IRIS

Iris is a staple in my garden.  It’s so easy to grow, and it seems to like this crappy soil (although I do cheat and put down some gravel for drainage in the planting bed). I splurged and bought these fancy black, white and pink iris from Iris-4U, they’re local here in Denver, CO.  (https://www.iris4u.com/ )

Black, white and pink

The store is just  a private residence, who grows Iris on both sides of his house, on a large lot.  He does a wonderful job, they are all labeled and organized well, and they have a catalog too.  He opens the garden in the late spring when the Iris bloom so you can see what you like.  the pick them out, and in the fall he harvests the tubors for you, and labels them.  then you go pick them up.

Inmortality
Black magic

 

And two varieties of pink, Pink reflection which is a very light pink and a dusty pink Iris.   they were beautiful the first year, but now they need to be moved – the Canadian Red Cherry leafs out too soon and puts down too much shade.  That’ OK, I’ll find them another location in the garden that they will like better.

I planted a mix or yellow, orange, bronze and rust colored Iris on the street-side of the south berm.  They also did extremely well, and had to be moved,

Orange, Yellow and Rust colored Iris

as the blue rug juniper overtook the hill they were planted on.  I sent a bunch to my Mom in Utah, and then a transplanted the rest into the south noodle gardens.

First year for the Orange and Rust Iris, south berm, street side
Orange/bronze Iris moved into the noodle garden fall of 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

They are much happier here!

Shades of purple, peach and white mix with the darker purple salvia at the base of the west berm.  I planted some exotic “Safari” mix (Brecks bulbs).  Purple, hot pink and orange with stripes and spots.  AMAZING! the first year, but then all the

Iris and Salvia, base of west berm

stripes and spots disappeared.  they replaced the bulbs the next fall, and again the first year they were beautiful, and then the second year all the spots and stripes disappeared.  Sigh.    this is what they were supposed to look like:

I received a large quantity of dark purple Iris from a friend, whose nieghbor was tearing them out.  I love freebies!  And these are spectacular.  I have no idea what the variety is though.

Purple Iris, free from Kimberlee

Mom’s yellow iris and some new purple ones I thought would look good with them.  These Iris remind me of my childhood; Mom always had Iris in her garden, she still does.

Mom’s yellow Iris and some new purple ones I added 2 years ago.

“Since Iris is the Greek goddess for the Messenger of Love, her sacred flower is considered the symbol of communication and messages.  Greek men would often plant an iris on the graves of their beloved women as a tribute to the goddess Iris, whose duty it was to take the souls of women to the Elysian fields.”   
Hana No Monogatari: The Stories of Flowers

Go West!

I’m working my way through the garden design from east to west.  The poor lonely, boring west berm is all out there by itself, just some Tam junipers and crab apples trees.  Time to add some color, texture and layers.

New plantings on the west berm

(Another crappy, blurry 2010 picture!)  Among the Tam junipers , some wild multi-colored yarrow blew in from across the street to the south.  So I let it grow.  It adds some nice color in the spring, and something interesting to look at in the winter. At the base of the berm I planted a row of Black-knight Spirea.  then I tilled up and prepared the soil in front of the berm so I could put in some perennials.  I planted a variety of fancy Iris (mail ordered from Breck’s bulbs), and purple salvia, cause it was on-sale and I want pinks, purples and whites on the west berm.  I also planted a variety of winter hardy roses both on my side of the berm and  on Roy’s side.  They will be white and pink.

The sycamore tree at the west end of the south berm

In the far background you can see the new Sycamore tree that we planted, I think 2 years ago?  It’s finally starting to look like a tree.  The two bookend boulders (see above pic) were purchased with the boulders that form an energetic boundary between our property and the neighbor to the north/west.  They weigh 3 tons each.