So I’m in the mood for color this year, apparently. I put all of my mother’s orphaned bearded irises in a bed. Then I thought, there should be color all summer, so I started looking for reblooming iris. And I found that there are several different sizes of bearded iris, with bloom times roughly associated with size–the smallest ones bloom first. But still, there’s a gap during the summer… gladiolus! Variegated irises! Needless to say, I’ve gone a bit overboard.

I bought two from Easy to Grow Bulbs, which were tiny and looked to have been trimmed by rusty dull pruners; these are in the bed by the double gate, called the Iris Bed. That’s where all the orphaned ones are planted.

But then there are the peonies…so late Saturday night, I ordered a bunch of glads off eBay from shanleecreations:

• Mante, a deep blue
• Peach Melba, light peach
• Olympic Flame, orange
• Sun-Kissed, deep orange
• Zizane, which doesn’t match any color scheme; it’s a bright white and red tie-dyed celebration

And a pretty Siberian iris, ‘Painted Woman’, because I like the foliage of Siberians better than the bearded iris.

These all arrived today, with even more corms than I bought, and I have planted them in every available space in the iris and peony beds. I have convinced myself that I don’t need to attend either of the two community plant sales this weekend! I still need to fertilize them—I have a raccoon who digs up the Espoma fertilizers, so I have to do it when it will rain during the daytime.

Oh, by the way, I ordered some irises from Schreiner’s Iris Gardens last week that will arrive in July:

• Pallida Variegata Silver, the one I thought I’d ordered from Easy; I’ve seen the height as anywhere from 24 to 34 inches
• Batik, and old favorite that I don’t think survived at Mom’s house; early
• Magical Encounter, a pale shrimp color; early, midseason and late
• Orange Harvest, medium orange, fragrant, rebloomer; early midseason
• El Torito, intense orange dwarf; very early
• Always and Forever, the bonus plant, cream with lavender edges; midseason

I think I’ve got enough now. 🙂