Wake up and smell the – Iris

Iris are a plant from my past

We always had iris in our yards when I grew up in Missouri. Everybody had them and we never planted them. They were just there. I took them for granted. Iris were just part of the spring parade of flowers. I never noticed their beauty and never appreciated their faithful display and their rugged independence.

Forgotten In SoCal

In Southern California, nobody grows iris. I never missed them and if I thought about them at all it was as part of the gardening tradition for the rest of the country as I embraced the frost-free garden lifestyle of SoCal.

The transition

Now in my NoCal rockpile at the edge of the foothills, I have the temperatures that make iris feel at home but I was reluctant to plant them. My mind was still in frost-free, SoCal coastal mode. As my hibiscus and plumeria died, I began to notice that some of the old familiars from my childhood do grow in the central valley and particularly in my yard at the base of the foothills rockpile. I ordered some iris.

Trial Run  on the hill

First I put them along the dry creek on our hillside backyard. Although the landscaping was installed with drip irrigation for the plants, I didn’t connect the lines to the plants I added,including my iris. Without the irrigation water they didn’t thrive. They produced flowers although not every year. In addition, they didn’t die.

Then on the front line

This encouraged me to get more and put them in the better irrigated beds around the flat part of my back yard. There they bloom beautifully and faithfully every year and each year I add a few more. They don’t mind the rocks. The spring flowers are gorgeous and the sword-like leaves fill the beds with greenery during the scorching summer hear.

Back to my roots

Iris are like an old aunt that was always there for you but you never appreciated until she died Unlike the dead aunt, however, iris are back in my life and helping me make a garden in the rocks of El Dorado County.