There is nothing better than a gardening project to bring friends together for a good time!
A couple weeks ago, my dear co-blogger and her friend Lisa came up to help me rid my yard of Iris douglasiana — What?? Rid my yard of gorgeous Douglas iris?? —
Well, yes - but only because they hybridize easily and I'm still trying to establish a good population of Fernald's iris, our locally wild species. I started that project after I'd already planted quite a bit of douglas iris.
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| Iris fernaldii, locally native in my neighborhood |
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| I hope for lots more than this! |
So - no Iris douglasiana for me!
Now, as you may recall from a recent Town Mouse post, The Gift that keeps on giving, the three of us gathered on a beautiful sunny fall day at Lisa's home to help her come up with a garden plan for her home, with lots of gorgeous native plants, and later Lisa and Town Mouse had a great time in Ms T Mouse's garden finding plants to share.
Well, iris are definitely on Lisa's list and I had quite a few to contribute. I began watering my problem patch to be sure they would lift easily.
Our native iris species are tough and resilient, with year-round green strappy leaves, and spring flowers that are intensely blue and gorgeous. Some Douglas iris are yellow, but the ones I had to share are straight-up blue with yellow accents. They like sun but also do well - or better inland - with less than full sun.
We forked and dug them out pretty easily, and divided them into clumps.
For a detailed post on dividing native iris, see my 2010 post Late November is time to divide native iris.
Ms. Town Mouse trimmed the leaves up as we proceeded.
Luckily I had a lot of pots, claimed from a recycle bin (Yes, I dumpster-dive for garden pots!)
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| Bye-bye Iris douglasiana! Glad you're going to a good home! |