Polly--'Summer skies' is showing color. We used to grow corn & butternut sqquash. After the yr the racoons ate the corn, we quit. Rabies had moved up into the area & we didn't want to attract them. Irises in that bed now.

Love Summer Skies!

Rabies is a real concern here too. Mainly fox at the moment.

Beautiful Tom.

A couple new ones today
Silk Road - Keppel 2008 and Thai Orange - Ernst 1996

A few rainy pics today.
Looking For Love - Ernst 1999 and Lorilee - Schriner

Material Girl - T Johnson 2005

This bloom got kind of beaten up in the rain, I'll take a better one later when another one opens.

I am so jealous that you have Iris blooming. I miss mine -- and keep looking at my driveway photos! Thanks for sharing and please keep doing so -- it makes the Iris season last longer!!

Well, I'm getting down to the end here, we had a much needed rain last night, lots of it, and high winds on Thursday, The blooms look a bit ragged now. Dutch Treat, one of the first few to bloom, still has a couple blooms coming. I love it when they just keep going and going. I put some of my favorits near the house and also farther out so that when they are done near the house they are just starting farther out. Glad you're enjoying them. Now we need someone in the Southern Hemesphere to post theirs during our winter, and we'll be all set!

I have been enjoying the iris season so far. Even though I don't have many clumps this year, because almost all my iris got moved and replanted last season, along with new ones I acquired....the weird temps seems to have made them last longer this year, or is it my imagination? ~ Jan

Boy -- I wish we'd get some of your rain. We're in the midst of a drought and it's only May. The corn is suffering, my horse pastures crackle underfoot when you walk across them. I am hose-watering trees, bushes, newly planted daylilies and monkey grass -- plus hand watering all potted plants at least once a day. It's a full-time job!

It's been dry here too, the lawn was beginning to turn brown, and I had started to feed hay to the pasture horses. I have a bunch of fruit trees I've been watering, not that I'm going to get any fruit this year. We must have gotten a bit more then an inch of rain last night. Now I have to go take a picture of a new bloom that I noticed earlier. Lemon Dew, another yellow one. I'll post it's picture in the morning.

For us in Calif. no rain from about May through Nov. is normal. Rain anytime in the summer is unusual. And we have large agricultural crops all throughout the state. Everything gets irrigated.

Here in Kentucky, we normally get year-round rain. No need for irrigation. However, for the past few years it has been a *feast or famine* type of thing. Last Spring we had un-ending rain with large areas being flooded, homes ruined, people evacuated. A total disaster. This year -- the sun just shines and the temps are 10 to 20 degrees higher than normal. Whatever happened to normal?

Here's a few more
Lemon Dew - Ernst 1998 and a better pic of Material Girl

Night Game - Keppel 1995 This one has had some weather affected blooms, this is the first bloom close to normal, but its standards are torn by the wind.

We have had 'catch up' days of rain even if it was drizzle all day. Now the town watering ban sign is up. We use drip line instead of sprinklers as we don't care about getting a great lawn. From people's attitude about grass you would think we lived in England. Plant irises insead.

Finally got an acceptable picture of this one. It's been going for a while, but couldn't seem to get a clear picture.
King Tush - Kasperek 1997

Look at the 'glitter' on it - beautiful! ~ Jan

Just a few more
Sharp Shooter - Keppel 2000 and a better picture of Silk Road

Another stragler
Degas Dancer - Schreiners 1994

This one had some earlier miss shapped blooms there were a lot of them this year.
Just have two more to bloom, hard to look at the end.

My last ones are blooming now, I thik by the end of the weekend my iris will be done.

Unless...... I get some reblooms this year.....

I'm thinking that we might get better rebloom this year because of the extra month of growth. I'm hoping anyway. I have one of my asiatic lillies open, and the day lillies are not far behind. These lows in the 40's have me worried about a late frost though. Finally have my tomatos and peppers planted, my veggie garden took a back seat to all the other stuff going on. Oh well, last year I planted it at this time too, and everything went well.