Plant of the Month

 The previous post made reference to the beauty of dahlias at this time of the year. However, they will get even better as summer progresses. So I fall back on one of my all time favourite plants, the iris, for my pick this month. The picture is a dutch iris on the patio. It is hard to explain why I am drawn to the different types of iris that we have, it is certainly not because I find them easy to grow. The dutch iris is not dissimilar to the reticulata which is a staple of our spring bulb lasagnas. The delightful veined, blue petals with perfectly contrasting bright yellow patch (the signal) make for a perfect flower. However, it is much taller (at about 60 cm) and it seems to last a little bit longer. In fact I think the beauty of the iris is such that it does not really need a companion plant in its pot, I just grow it alongside some ornamental fennel, which has a rather more attractive and ethereal foliage than the long thin leaves of the iris.

While I am on the theme of ethereal effects in the garden, the lower photograph shows Mili posing in the dappled sunshine just beyond the blood grass and pony tail grass.This is, of course, the season when the ornamental grasses really start to get going, expect to see a few more pictures in the weeks ahead. I have been busying  inter planting some cornflowers, ox eye daisies and poppies, hopefully for good effect. Despite the accepted wisdom that all these flowers will happily self seed, in my experience this is not the case, with the exception of the yellow Welsh poppies which proliferate! Ah the vagaries of trying to work with nature.

The iris germanica (bearded iris) has also done quite well this year. My top tip is to be absolutely rigid in ensuring that the  top of the rhizome is left exposed above the soil. It really does need to bake over the next few months ready for next year. I have to be careful when applying a mulch, such as chipped bark, to the rest of the bed ensuring it does not cover the rhizome.