The Coveted Iris Blooms

I thought I had written a post about how much I coveted my neighbor's iris that seemed to bloom all year round, but as it turns out this all happened before I started blogging and I probebly told it to the cat, so here is the story.

One of my neighbors in San Juan Capistrano has a lovely Tuscanny style landscape that I adore. In her yard are about fifiteen or twenty iris that are a lovely shade of purple that I swear seem to bloom all year round. I do love iris, however most of them bloom for a few weeks in the late spring and that is about it. The exception is 'Frequent Flyer' a beautiful white iris that blooms spratically throughout spring and fall.

When I had a chance to meet my neightbor one day about a year ago she told me the iris was called 'Frequent Violet' and she bought it at Roger's Gardens, a local nursery. For about six months I combed the internet as well as calling Roger's to see if they had any in stock, but I had no luck locating it.

I was going to knock on her door and ask my neighbor if she would share some with me the next time she divided them when out-of-the -blue I found about five one gallon plants of them at the annual garden show last April. I bought them all and was estatic! I put them in a prime location near my front door in SJC and waited. And waited and waited.

Finally, now in the middle of fall, one of the plants has started to bloom and I am thrilled! Of course my neighbor's iris are blooming their little violet heads off, but I am satisfied with just a few blooms on one plant that hopefully is the beginning of a long and prolific relationship.