More Life Out on the Range

I'm so pleased the yellow iris is blooming! I think the two other irises in the same bunch are going to be a different color, so I'll have to see if I can clear some space around this one and baby it a bit. I do love yellow in the garden! It's also in a hidden corner of the garden. You have to be on the rough path from the house around the fence to the swing set. It's great for us because we walk that way nearly every day, but if I can get it to spread we'll divide it up and put some out front where visitors can see them.


Apparently, we have another whole bunch of irises that will be the same color as these.


And, as if yesterday's spider wasn't enough, they're breeding right on the porch. (I found another who gob of them in the former flower bed, currently gone to weed, I'm trying to clear so Kansas Dad can make an herb garden.)


Also, I think I was mistaken in the cat with the kittens. I saw a completely different cat wander by with an early dinner dangling from her mouth. She's about the same coloring, but much larger. (I thought the first one seemed small to have had such big kittens already.) So that brings the stray cat count on the Range to 3 adults and 3 kittens. Country mice, beware!

The Irises Are Blooming

Our first iris bloomed on Easter morning. Now we have lots!

The Irises

Kansas Dad says the blog's been too quiet this week. We've been very busy lately, out and about with friends, lazing around in the yard for hours on end and all the other usual fare. I've been too tired in the evenings to post much, though, especially pictures. Don't worry, I'll get over it once baby arrives! (Three months isn't so long, is it?)

Here are a few of our irises, just to give you something to see.

The first iris appeared on April 20th. I sent Kansas Dad out in the mist the next day to take a picture.

The yellow irises (oh, how I love yellow flowers!) starting blooming on April 30th.

Since then, we've had new irises blooming nearly every day. I went out yesterday and took pictures of all of them, most of which are shown here.

As you can see, we have a lot of irises, all inherited from previous owners. They are quite possibly the loveliest part of the Range.

The ones above are the only ones we bought. We had planted them at the old house and brought them along even though we didn't know how well they'd survive. I don't remember them blooming last year, but they've done very well this year.

The patch below holds the ones Kansas Dad transplanted last year. We really need to transplant all of them, but it's a bit time-consuming. (And there are so many!) I was afraid they wouldn't bloom, but we see more and more every day.

(In fact, we had a new one come in today in this patch - a bi-color with pink and purple, very pretty!) The last picture shows the first of the set I missed last year while I was traveling. Such a brilliant color!

There are probably at least four or five other patches, some of which are so crowded they haven't sent up any stems at all. We'll be working to transplant some of the irises in the heat of the summer (working around baby's birth, of course). If you're in the area and would like some, let us know. We'd gladly trade some rhizomes for help with the transplanting. I doubt we'll get to all the patches this year, so there will be more the year after and the year after that and the...you get the picture.