Everything is beginning to pop in the garden now. Warm rains and warmer nights (we have been in the 50's at night for so long!) are starting to have effect. If only for a while however, the Louisiana Iris is taking over as the "eye-catcher" in the garden right now. We have only a few of these regal specimen, but they really stand out now that the Bearded Irises have faded off into the sunset. Louisiana Irises LOVE to be wet and can grow easily in standing water (best way to control the weeds, that's for sure). We have one in our goldfish pond! But they are actually thriving on the driest, sandiest part of our garden and even doing very well in the shade of a big peach tree too. The foliage is usually much more slender and the rhizomes smaller than its bearded cousin. Ryan took this pic. I am trying to teach him something about photography and what better way than to let him in on the blog action. This L. Iris is called 'Black Gamecock' and is a stunner! Ryan has yet to master the shake of the camera but after only a couple of trys he got the framing down pretty good. I taught him the meaning of the A, S, and M settings and we did these pic in the A(perture) mode. The second pic is of a Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia tritoma) and I love the framing he did on that one. The Red Hot Poker is a tough perennial that lends a tropical look to any garden. Just be sure to plant them in the middle of a two-sided border or the back of a one-sided border; they can get quite tall!
