May showers

[muckefuck]

Last weekend, I noticed the Dutch irises were out, which means that Chicago has finally more-or-less caught up to where St Louis was three weeks ago. I was glad to see them during my recent trip down there, since it helped explain why I firmly consider them spring flowers even though they bloom in June up here on the verge of hardiness zone 5a. And though it may now be social summer, it's still horticultural spring. Sure, we had thunderstorms last night, but today was misty, chill, and wet.

All good for the plants, I keep telling myself. Sooner or later, I'll become less obsessive about checking on their growth. At least twice a day I'm there beside myself with delight at the appearance of new shoots. Even the sad little excuse of a borage plant is beginning to perk up. The mint, as you can well imagine, is going gangbusters. Think I may take a couple sprigs tonight and treat myself to a freshly-brewed cup of tea. For sure I'll do that if I end up getting rained upon on the way home, as looks far too likely.

Comments

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

I saw my first Siberian iris of the season today. One of my all-time favorites!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

How do you tell the difference between that and Dutch iris?

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

I learned it that the Siberian iris doesn't have the yellow "signals", and is just dark, dark, and delicate (and extremely hardy!)-- however, Google does say that Siberian Iris can have other colors with signals, so who knows?