Stacey, just looking at the iris bed in your avatar I can tell that you're a much better iris grower than I am! And those first five have been in the ground for less than a year, so they seem quite vigorous, Here is a picture of my front iris beds (there are three going up the hill) taken about a week ago, and I think your irises look better. My iris bed in the back yard doesn't have hardly anything in bloom there yet, although four out of those five are in that bed.
I'm really noticing that I'm getting some really tall stalks this spring, and I'm wondering if it's because our weather has been fluctuating so much. I used up all my stakes in our last big wind, and some of the new ones are kicking up their heels and keeling over because they're so tall and top heavy with blooms. Amazing!
But unfortunately it's like a ski slope. My husband very graciously built my three beds there on the one end of the yard, and to be honest I don't want any more flower beds than we already have -- I can't even keep up with what we have! I guess I'm getting old now and starting to think about scaling back a little -- at least on the iris. And I'm really going to have to plan my daylily crosses carefully now -- very little space. So no crosses without teeth, mini's or complex eye patterns involved!
