iris

There have been some lovely surprises blooming in the various beds around the farm.  Just now the many large iris are showing their colors. If you do a Google search with the simple word iris, you arrive at approximately 180,000,000 hits. (In my post For the Love of Paper I mention another meaning of the word iris. Just another of the mega million links to the word.) Looking at the Wikipedia article you find iris comes from the Greek word meaning rainbow. They do seem to come in a rainbow of colors.

Since there aren't any plant labels in the beds, I don't know any of their real names.  Some of the clusters are so large they will need dividing before next season and so I will be finding homes for the extras. Some will go into my city garden and Anne's as well. There are some iris now blooming in my city garden that I'll be bringing here when it's time. Those have come from my sisters and my friends and having them here will bring those dear ones close to me when I see them blooming here next spring.
Here are a few at the farm now.
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And then a few in the city garden.

Thinking about doing a post on iris reminded me of some non-plant irises I've put my hand to.
There's this ancient pencil drawing I did before Anne was born...

and cross stitched irises...

There are iris in my collection of brass stencils...

 and rubber stamps as well. I love to use these for stationery.

I've taken photographs and made photo greeting cards with the computer equipment I have now. My printer is ancient and not very good. But Anne brought to the farm a powerhouse printer I'll be able to use, just as soon as we get some replacement inks. Must do that soon...
For now I'll close with a photo of the bouquet I cut in bud last night that has opened to greet me this morning. And like so many of the spring bloomers, their time is much too short.