Make room for a new hobby

Dang, what am I going to do? Years ago we started collecting daylilies and it became an obsession. Now, just when we were content in the middle-age of being daylily collectors, along comes the japanes iris, and a new obsession may be beginning. In fact it is so likely that we walked through the garden this morning (mind you, this is an approximate 6,000 sq ft display garden) deciding which daylilies lacked the "where-with-all" to stay in the garden in order to make room for some new acquistions of japanese irises.

The newest one to knock out socks off was 'Jocasta' Pictured below you can see why we chose it in the first place. Japanese iris flowers are huge and flat compared to the traditional bearded irises but just have a look and luster all their own. Japanese irises are happy in very moist to slightly dry soil but best with even moisture. We have yet to see how they will perform in the driest part of our garden, but we'll yank them at first sign of poor performance since they are sometimes a bit pricey. They do not have the large rhizomes that bearded's do, but tend to grow with a little more depth and tightness. Their slender, very upright foliage is attractive too.

Classic Charm also "charmed" us with its elegance and sheer size. The bud just hung on and hung on before finally popping open in what seemed like just minutes. It is easily six inches across and the pure white of the "falls" underneath the medium purple and white standards is striking! The picture just doesn't do it justice.

Folks, if you consider yourself a fan of irises and don't have even one of the japanese variety, you are missing out. Expand your horizons and you might find, as I have, that you can never reach the horizon, cause it's always out there calling you forward! Go, Go, Go!!