Rogue Iris

Hi friends...

Happy Saturday, May 22nd. Can you believe May is almost over already? This year has ramped up and is speeding by.  

Just a quick pop-in to show some pictures of my "rogue" Irises, and my stunning purple and gold Irises. I just LOVE Irises!

Some purple and golds that I planted a few years ago.

A few years ago, I think it was about 2015, I dug up a bunch of purple Irises from my ex-husband's yard up in Washougal, WA. He and his wife were moving from the "homestead" that he and I built in the 70's, and I wanted to dig up as many plants as I could, that I had planted way back then, or that they had planted. I also dug up some plants and flowers that I HAD PLANTED back in the 80's!! They have survived here and I have so happy about that. 

This vine maple, from Washougal, is finally doing well. It has taken  5 years for it to find its footing and grow!

The Irises that I dug up looked purple. It was early May and I don't think they had opened up yet, but the tops looked purple. So I brought them  home to Madras, and kept them in buckets of water until I could plant them. There were maybe 20 Irises and 10 other shrubs or flowers.  The Irises got planted in the corner of our front yard in a little flower bed, and then DID bloom and put on a gorgeous display for us! (see above photo).

By 2018, the flower bed of Irises had grown and multiplied! (see below)................

By 2019, they were so thick that I knew I'd have to dig up some and split the bulbs. Each May, they were putting on a wonderful show for us!

This one flower bed had mostly purple Iris, and a few gold with burgundy tops (see top photo). The gold ones popped up a couple of years after I planted the originals! They must have been dormant or something.  I decided, in 2019, to add a couple of yellow Iris to my garden, and planted those in our back yard, in the shade of our Lilac bush.

In 2020, I decided it was time to dig up the front flower bed of Irises, split up the bulbs and transplant them in more areas of our yard. Let me tell you! That was NOT an easy job. The bulbs were all hooked together just like blocks of cement. My husband  had to chop them apart with an axe......... and I had doubts that some of them would even survive that.  

Out of those original 20 or so plants, I must have had at least a hundred to transplant in our yard. I put them all in buckets of water, and tried to keep them separated as to color. I had the purples, gold and bungundys, and some smaller yellow Iris that my sister dug up from her house in La Pine, OR and gave to me. 

Here are the  yellow Iris by our Lilac bush that I planted in the ground. I even threw that last few I was trying to save, into our cedar tub. I had no idea if Iris would or could grow in a tub!

Replanting front bed with the plants spaced further apart.

Neat and tidy now!

I dug new flower beds in our front lower yard (in front of our 4 ft. rock wall), and along the side of our lower yard.  I planted probably 50 there, and 50 more in our back yard by our Lilac bush, and along our back raised rock wall flower bed.

I dug a new flower bed along our rock wall in our front yard.

Back yard raised flower bed. They love it there.. even though it's partially shady in the afternoons.

Back corner raised flower bed. I mulched everything and they love this area too. Front left bright green is a vine maple shrub that I brought from Washougal with the Irises. 

Some of the Irises stayed in the buckets of water for weeks. I was tired and exhausted from all the yard work, and planted the leftovers at the last minute, when I knew if I didn't get them in the ground, they wouldn't survive. I had no idea by then what colors I was planting, and even shoved the rest into some tubs and flower pots.

So now, in 2021, almost ALL of my Irises have bloomed and they have given us a wonderful show! I couldn't be happier. Front yard and back yard... they are amazing. My sister's little yellows are so pretty, the yellow ones by the back Lilac are gorgeous and big, and our purples and golds are taller than ever!

My sister's "baby" yellows.

Lower bed below our rock wall, and more at the far end.

My large yellows that I planted in 2019. They are two toned and have already multiplied.

And now.... I bet you are wondering about the "rogue"...... I had taken all of these wonderful pictures around May 6th.... then a few days later, my husband called me to come outside as he wanted to show me something.... and down to the lower yard we went, and to my surprise and amazement........... there was this!

We couldn't believe it! In all these years, we had never seen one like this! A purple with a delicate white top. It was amazing! Where did it come from? I had never planted one like it. All we can think is that it somehow was dormant for all these years and when I dug up the bulbs and replanted them, it came alive again! Who knows?

Then a few days later, there were TWO on the same stalk!

Then a few days later, we looked at the little flower bed at the end of our lower area, and there was this!

And that's my story... and I'm stickin' to it...... maybe next year we'll get some more "rogues"!!!!  And also, I want to plant some pink ones as of course, I need more PINK in our yard!

Does anyone have ideas where the rogues came from?

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