Well yesterday the weather was pleasant enough (11 degrees celcius) to get outside and do some clean up work, and take a well earned break from the end of financial year accounts backlog. Of course it was the iris beds I headed towards. I have limed my large beds, but there were a few more in need, and weeding was required before the lime went down.

I was rewarded with a surprise! One flower bud and another imminent. This is very early for here, on a TB, and I suspect it might be an I. germanica. While I don't grow many unlabelled irises, I couldn't resist taking a few from my mothers garden last year. She had complained about irises she bough years ago that have never bloomed. I removed a few rhizomes from under the heavy shade of the eucalypt tree, where nutrition was at a minimum. They have clumped up well in my garden and are rewarding me. If they are going to bloom regularly in winter, I will be happy to have them in my garden, no matter what!

There are also buds starting to be palpable on my iris lutescens. Given that the daffodils haven't even started blooming yet, this is early for me :-)

Cheers, Jan in Australia, getting excited!