With gardening, there’s always something new to learn. Sometimes it just takes me awhile (like say, THREE YEARS).
I didn’t know the first thing about bearded irises, but every spring there’s a patch of them blooming in just about every yard in this city. I figured they must be pretty easy to grow. I purchased and planted one in the spring of 2007. For three years it grew happily, but never sent up a single flower stalk. For someone who is quick to yank out a plant that doesn’t perform, I was unusually patient with my iris.
It wasn’t until this spring when I was searching for a few perennials at a garden center that I noticed a sign next to the bearded irises saying that the rhizome can’t be planted too deeply in the soil or the plant won’t bloom. AHA! When I got home I grabbed a shovel and made a beeline for my iris. I lifted up the rhizome and tucked it in right near the surface of the soil. Sure enough, within two weeks several flower stalks appeared.
After 3 long years, my ‘Armageddon’ bearded iris is finally blooming:
