I went to Bow this morning to take some rescued ferns and Siberian iris to my sister, and found the antique iris we moved from the shade beside the driveway two years ago in full bloom.
These are not today’s showy, frilled, massive plants, but forgotten cultivars from years ago that survived root borers and neglect, persisted in shade, and came to bloom again when someone dug them out of a ditch or rescued them from some old property about to be bulldozed.
There is nothing modern about these plants, and that is why I like them. They fit into a small flower bed, and don’t look awkward or overdressed. They do not need more water than New Hampshire gives them. They need only a patch of sun.
On my way home from Bow I stopped on Gorham Pond Road in Dunbarton to see the annual show of Lupines that naturalized in these fields that look out west toward the Green Mountains of Vermont.
And as a bonus to this sparkling day- it rained a lot last night!
Gardening On Granite 