Ok, this is way late for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day.  No Excuses.  Everyone has gardens to build, weed, water, and harvest.  But what really slows me down in posting is when I find a lovely flower that I acquired years ago and can’t figure out what the name is.  And that leads me to the internet and well, you know how that goes.  One thing leads to another and pretty soon you are buying another few plants instead of posting about the ones you have.

Anyway here are some of the flowers that I should have been sharing.  Lillies and Iris are foremost.  The Spuria Iris are some of my favorites.

The Spuria are generally pretty tall, but Shelford Giant is especially high up before it flowers.

I used to focus on the bearded Iris but I’ve found that many of the other species Iris are more reliable and enjoyable.  I’ve never had the Iris borers focus on the other species the way they can on the bearded hybrids.  In particular the Japanese Iris have a way of making nice clumps in the perennial gardens.

A new Japanese Iris for us this year is this four-foot tall specimen from Plant Delights.

The Blackout Lillies are creating their normal smashing display of vibrant dark red.

And in anticipation of setting a new height record for us the Trumpet Hybrid Pink Perfection is now higher than the 8 foot piece of granite in our Monument Bed.

Our potted lily wanna-be from the Amazon is in full flower at the moment.

I need to single out the last of the Arisaemas now in fully display. Both A. fargesii and A. candidssum took until June 4th before they showed their first pointed tips coming out of the soil.  I especially love the pink of the A. candidissums.

Just a few other shots from around the yard before I go…

And let me close with another gem from the greenhouse…