2026, Family, gardening, home, Nature

Memorial Blooms

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The iris is my favorite flower; I have always loved them.  It’s probably an inherited trait; I’m pretty sure it was one of my mother’s favorites.  To be honest, I don’t know for sure as my mom was never a flower planter.  She did like to do yard maintenance but didn’t add shrubs or flowers in any of the homes we lived in.  She did however take us kids to the Missouri Botanical Gardens every year, always during the time that the iris gardens there were in full bloom.  That can’t be a coincidence. 

Alice Hahn Goodman Iris Garden (photo credit: Heather Osborn)

I have iris planted all over my yard, front and back, and in a wide variety of colors.  The iris in the header photo is the first to bloom this season – I don’t even know the name of it.  It was supposed to be an orange variety but when it came up the following spring it was this startling white.  Gertens actually credited me for them so not only are the gorgeous, but they were free.  Two of my favorite things.

Of course this year these blooms are bringing my mother to mind so today I am remembering her and thanking her for infecting me with the love of iris!

Any blooms you’re remembering today (literal or metaphorical)?

39 thoughts on “Memorial Blooms”

  1. I also love iris! Not only their unique beauty and color combinations but also their scent! But I’m not aware of a perfume, cologne, scented soap etc that features iris! Our first home on 48th Ave S and Lake St was near an Iris grower’s garden so that home & future homes gardens usually had lots of Iris. The Arboretum collection takes me a while to view as I am smelling each variety to check their lovely scent- my favorite over roses, violets ( but lilies are TOO strong).

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    1. Out of curiosity, and this is going back many decades, are you referring to Gable Iris Gardens? Our first home, back in the mid-‘70s was walking distance from the Gable gardens and his iris were also feature flowers in our gardens. The site of his gardens is now the home of Robin’s long-time friend and former employer. An expansion of her home supplanted the iris but she has lovely expansive backyard gardens.

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      1. Yes indeed. We got wonderful iris for many years from Gable’s garden. So beautiful that when we moved to St Paul, most of the iris came along!
        Jennine

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    2. We were out at the Arboretum yesterday to see the Iris Collection which was mostly missing. They are re-routing the entrance now onto CR41, so you come into the Arb near the Farm. Once we got to the Snyder building there were tulips still blooming, but all but the late bloomers were spent. There were many empty beds near Snyder where the irises usually reside. Maybe they had an infestation of iris borers or they are just replanting this section. I could not tell, but all but a few irises are gone. The Allium garden was spectacular, as were the Azaleas.

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  2. The Japanese iris I got from somebody I worked with is taking over a lot of the front yard.

    Also a “regular” iris somebody had in a bag hanging off their fence labelled ‘free!’ is coming along nicely and should bloom next week.

    But the flower I anticipate for Memorial Day is Grandpa’s peony. It might bloom on the 31st (real Memorial Day). We shall see.

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    1. Actually the “real” Memorial Day is May 30. It got turned into the Monday holiday in 1971. I know this because my sister Sally’s birthday is on the 30th. As a kid, she adored having a holiday as her birthday and was SERIOUSLY peeved when the change happened. Actually even after all these decades, she still rants about it in May!!

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  3. Rise and Smell the Flowers, Baboons,

    The irises in our yard are blooming their little rhizomes out! This morning there was a newly bloomed yellow and white one that I find so beautiful. The yellow/yellow velvet ones that come out first are nearly spent, as the purple ruffled and orange ruffled one is getting ready to go. The Siberia irises started blooming yesterday. It all makes me so happy, as does air conditioning which filters the indoor air and calms my allergies. I feel a bit better today.

    During wet years you have to watch for iris borers, which ruined many of mine 2 summers ago. The borer is actually a caterpillar that then emerges into a moth.

    I cannot name a favorite flower. I love so many of them. Flowers are an embarrassment of riches (and plant sexual behavior) that are such a luxury.

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    2. I have thought of Edith often lately. Part of her bleeding heart, named Edith, is blooming like crazy and is huge. I like to think she visits me there.

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  6. Lovely photos, VS.

    Husband’s favorite flower has been the iris. I have a framed botanical print on a bedroom wall, and another one found at a yard sale in the bath. I love them too.

    We have the purple/white variety out on the boulevard, just about done blooming. There is only one bloom (will be all purple) on north side of house, I really should move those. A few more purple ones out front, and there also appears to be a Siberian iris on front wall, that I vaguely remember being given last fall.

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    1. I do look forward to the peonies, and we have some buds on each of 3 bushes that we tried bringing from Robbinsdale.
      I also love Mary Oliver’s poem, which I can’t resist copying here.

      Peonies

      This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
      to break my heart
      as the sun rises,
      as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

      and they open —
      pools of lace,
      white and pink —
      and all day the black ants climb over them,

      boring their deep and mysterious holes
      into the curls,
      craving the sweet sap,
      taking it away

      to their dark, underground cities —
      and all day
      under the shifty wind,
      as in a dance to the great wedding,

      the flowers bend their bright bodies,
      and tip their fragrance to the air,
      and rise,
      their red stems holding

      all that dampness and recklessness
      gladly and lightly,
      and there it is again —
      beauty the brave, the exemplary,

      blazing open.
      Do you love this world?
      Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
      Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

      Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
      and softly,
      and exclaiming of their dearness,
      fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

      with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
      their eagerness
      to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
      nothing, forever?

      by Mary Oliver

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        2. It is but it’s kind of old. I painted it about 20 years ago. The “green fists of peonies” brought it to mind.

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  7. We are just getting to know our new yard. It is pretty dismal. Lots of spirea bushes and cardinal shrubs and other unknown shrubs poorly maintained, some things I think are iris of some sort, but not German bearded iris, and all the beds are lined in gravelly rocks atop black plastic weed barrier. Also lots of short pernnial geraniums . This is our year for planning. Next year the rocks get removed, and peonies, roses, bearded iris, and hydrangea go in, as well as other perennial flowers.

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  8. My silence: I get giant cell arteritis headaches day after day. They kick off my migraines. I cannot think. I am knocked out. When I try to write, it is the mess you have seen. The very successful treatment of GCA is heavy use of prednisone which is bad for my bad glaucoma. So the choice is I go blind by GCA or glaucoma. I have new doctors with this move. We will see.
    Thanks for reminder of Steve and Edith. We go up to Northrup on Saturday for memorial service for all the people who gave their bodies to the U, like Sandra.
    Clyde

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