Friday, April 29, 2011

Iris, Iris, where are you?

Hi!
I am looking at all the bright green leaves crowded together.
Tall, flat, spiky leaves.
But where, oh where are the lovely iris?
Goddess of Spring Barbie, classical, 2000

The people that owned our house before us had tons of iris bulbs planted.
They then let them grow undisturbed for a couple of years.
When we moved in we were treated to the most beautiful display of iris blooms in the late spring.
These photos were taken previous years, of my garden:
I didn't know that iris came in so many different colors!

This is the color that I get the most requests to have a couple of tubers from:
So now I am waiting for this year's display!
Last fall my husband tried to divide some of them. We gave quite a few tubers to neighbors. He didn't pay attention however of what color he put where. So this year will be a surprise!

"Nature does not hurry,
yet everything is accomplished."
- Lao Tzu

Iris Barbie, c.2001

The following mermaid costume of Liana's will fit
Grace from yesterday, or Ivy from the day before:


Liana has a series of "Monday Mermaids" on her blog.
Check it out, addy to the right of my blog.

Here is another Monday Mermaid.
This one reminds me of the varying colors and stripes some of my iris have:
Oh, and here is the doll that fits it:
Her name is Sylvia.
Let's give her another outfit for today, to honor the Royal Wedding in England:

from ehow.com, their home section:
"The Iris flower is named after Iris, the Goddess of the Rainbow. The Iris flower can come in shades of blue, purple, white, yellow, pink, orange, brown, red and black. The Iris flower is in a genus by itself with between 200 and 300 different varieties and can be found around the world. The Iris flower is hardy from zone 3 to 9 or 10 depending on the variety."

Evil Queen, from Disney's Flower Pin series.




Spring Sun

On the Day of Cold Food
I go out to smell the perfume of the flowers,
Along the bank of the river.
Happy and at ease,
I let the soft East wind bathe my face.
Everywhere the Spring is blazing
With ten thousand shades of blue
And ten thousand colors of red.

by Chu Hsi,
 from 'One Hundred Poems from the Chinese'


Vincent Van Gogh painted several pictures of iris.
Here are three of them:
c.1889

"Still Life with Iris", 1889


"View of Arles with Iris"

"The flowers are smiling again,
The winter is past and gone,
The dandelions are nodding,
And dew is on the lawn."

-vintage verse


Mary Cicely Barker is one of my all time favorite fairy artists.
She is a classic.
She used the faces of children from her sister's pre-school as her fairy faces,
so each is unique!
Her Flower Fairies are charming,
with botanically accurate clothing!
Here is her Iris Fairy:
"Come fairies, take me out of this dull world,
for I would ride with you upon the wind
and dance upon the mountains like a flame!"
- W.B. Yeats

a vintage vase

Here is Alphonse Mucha's Art Nouveau Iris Lady:
from H. Jackson Brown, Jr.'s
'Life's Little Instruction Book, Volume II':

1. Pay as much attention to the things that are working positively in your life
as you do to those that are giving you trouble.


I'm off to admire my ONE tulip that is blooming!
Have you been outside today?

inkspired



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