Iris in the Klapwijk gardens

Iris' are a fairly recent introduction to our mix of flowers - but then most everything in the backyard in particular is all fairly recent. The first batch was planted in the late fall of 2000 and included a variety of Dutch Iris, the bulb variety, and assorted Bearded Iris.

The Dutch Iris' flowered nicely that first year, but, as might be expected none of the bearded varieties showed any flower that year.

This is Iris siberica 'Caesar's Brother', which flowered for the first time in 2001. It's a fairly vigorous grower, so we have to prune it every fall.

Both our Rottie bitches have a real penchant for the leaves of this Iris. If they had full access to them the plants would be naught but stubby, scrawny excuses which probably would never flower.

We added two new Iris siberica cultivars to our assortment in 2006. This one, called 'Sparkling Rose' was the only one to flower in its first year. The flower scape is considerably shorter than what we're used to seeing on 'Caesar's Brother' and we'll have to make sure to keep that in mind when planting it out, they're in #1 pots at the moment.

While it looks dramatic when backlit -don't they all-, this is more what it actually looks like, a very nice, soft pink.

In 2001 we were given an assortment of Bearded Iris tubers (see 'Immortality' below), some of which actually produced flowers that year, much to everyone's amazement. The following year, 2002, brought us a few pleasant Iris surprises. Most of the tubers we had planted in 2000 produced for the first time and some of the results were simply quite stunning. Below are but a couple of them.

To the left is a variety called 'Champagne Elegance' and below we have 'Loop de Loop'.

A few tubers of an unspecified Bearded Iris we now believe to be called 'Immortality'. Our initial reference to this one was simply 'Olaf's White' for the gentlemen from whose yard they came.

We're not sure of the origin of this particular variety, but rather suspect it came with the batch from Olaf. It's the only one to show any trace of yellow, the others are all white, almost Ice Blue when they mature.

It seems that we have been given a few Iris tubers for each of the past three years. This one here is probably the most common Bearded Iris you see around, don't know what it's called though. We got ours from Gordie and Esther so we just refer to it as Gordie. I'll get to the bottom of it one of these days though.

The other new one comes from 'the home' and it's getting nicely established. It has a marvellous, rich colouration to it; again, don't know what it's varietal name is -though we suspect this one's called 'Sultan's Sunrise'-, it's a beaut though, isn't it?