Irises and April Showers

Our rose garden needs tough plants and these gorgeous  strappy irises fit the bill perfectly. When we first planned the rose garden,

Bill's sister Jo gave us a  bag of rhizomes that she had taken from her garden. They grew like crazy and we had huge clumps of irises everywhere.

...and I loved them!

And then Bill's Aunty Betty gave us some lovely ones that she had trouble growing at her place. She seemed to think that they didn't get enough sunlight. So they went in too. 

Add to that, the ones that have been given to us by friends and family and we have quite the special collection.

I especially love this cream one but I don't seem to have seen it for the last couple of years.

I took this photo a couple of days after the fire. There are several patches of irises in this bed.

And this is how they look today ..... one of the patches showing lots of new life. There are some old rhizomes in there though that will need to be discarded.

We have thrown them on the bonfire in the past when there have been too many.......and they still survived!

I have no idea about the names of many of them, but the ones that my cousin Judy gave me are called..Pass the Wine (got to love that)

Collage

and Berry Bliss....I hope they all survive.

I couldn't resist this little charm pack from the patchwork shop......we had 4mm today. Yay!!!