Horticulturance

The iris is a lovely plant but in Bron Ceris it has to fight hard for space.  I still have plenty of room for more plants but finding a good situation for iris is hard. They need direct sun to bake the rhizome, they flower for a couple of weeks and then hang about with their pointy leaves  for the  rest of the year. They do not retire gracefully.

The Welsh/East Anglian artist Cedric Morris was a breeder and painter of Irises and he shows us how to love them  in their variety of colour and pattern, however I find that the density he illustrates and the period of loveliness too difficult to achieve.

Currently my irises are in a holding position that is neither good for the garden or good for them.  They share a small bed in the middle of the Japanese styled part of the garden  with some Hosta Sielbodliana (Canadian Blue) and Pachysandra Terminalis. It is probably too shady for the iris as there is my neighbour’s overhanging Portuguese Laurel on the one hand and a growing  Dickinsonia  on another.  I have a spot in mind. Currently the plot is weedy - save for a recently planted Magnolia Sielbodii, which will take a few years to get to any serious height. It is on the opposite and not normally accessible side of the pond - which has the wild iris  (I. pseudacorus)  self planted in it.

The spot with the irises will be re-thought. I will prune some of the branches of the laurel. The spot is too good for the pachysandra, which can go elsewhere. This leaves me with new and exciting questions.  I will want to plant this area in a way that makes full use of the large rocks emerging from the ground and are in the wall. Excuse the profusion of weeds- the next few months tidying will happen.