The azaleas and irises are in full bloom now, actually starting about a week ago. This is such a great time of year in the mountains, not too warm, not too cool, sweaters in the evening and sunny days. The sweet fragrance in the air makes you want to pause and breathe, taking a moment to appreciate this beautiful world and how lucky I am to live in the mountains surrounded by nature. Get ready for a long and picture heavy post!
My iris beds are a lot happier since I uncovered the rhizomes last year. There are going to be a lot more flowers this year.
About 10 days ago, they were literally covered in buds, so many more than before.
A few days later and they are bursting forth. The pale lavendar color is in both established beds, that I’ve had for years.
This one was a bit darker in color, opening up larger and prettier than the others.
Remember I said I was disappointed that the new irises in the third planter bed were going to be purple too? Well, I might change my mind, as the this one is so much larger and richer in color than the pale ones, with longer falls and a neat pattern to the beard base.
Then these beauties began to open. Startlingly beautiful in white edged in purple.
Gorgeous, and there are so many buds on these!
Then the real surprise, a burgundy with a yellow beard. There are three of the plants blooming with this color, or buds that look like they will be this. This one is a keeper for sure.
The color is even richer than this photo, dark burgundy falls with lighter petals.
As the days went on, more of the white and purple ones bloomed.
The new ones make the pale ones look small and a bit anemic. Now I want to rip up all the pale ones and get more of the deeper color ones. And I’d still like some yellow ones. But I am happy with the profusion of color in this area. The dirt is so shallow here between the steps and the brick planter, that it has been hard to find something to grow here.
A new visitor to the feeder, this rose-breasted grosbeak was stuffing his beak.
A blue jay came by, landing on the feeder and kicking the grosbeak off.
He landed on the top of the feeder and loudly expressed his displeasure at the intrusion. He screeched at the jay until the jay flew off, then went back to his meal. Now you know what it really means to get your feathers ruffled!!
Out in the meadow, the ajugas are coming up again. Large patches of purple carpet make the meadow look lovely.
The azaleas are coming out too. My favorite white ones are showing a mixed bag of pristine white next to areas of freeze damage brown.
There are pretty pink ones near the white ones.
One is a lavendar shaded pink, delicate and appealing to the bumblebees.
This darker pink is on the driveway.
Another white later bloomer wasn’t freeze damaged.
The hostas are beginning to come up. They are usually the last bloomers in the spring garden.
Up in the flower bed next to the house, the dianthus is coming on strong.
A thrift store find, this little iron bicycle is garden art.
The other iris bed got cleaned out, ridding it of all the leaves that drifted there over the winter. I hope getting some sun on the rhizomes will help them to bloom better. There are a few more buds here than last year. These are the smaller, pale purple like the other bed.
Looking down the driveway, the azaleas create a row of colorful blooms.
Farther down the driveway, these azaleas and trees line the edge of the meadow. In another week, they will be covered in blooms.
More of the burgundy iris blooms came out, filling the area with color.
I’ve been hearing the wood thrush again, and caught him on the lower feeder. The grosbeak on the upper one was cocking his head in a funny pose! I’m not sure what he was looking at.
Early evening one day last week, I heard the turkeys gobbling. I went to the veranda, and could hear them but they weren’t in the meadow. But I did notice a large dark shape high in the tree on the far side of the meadow.
I grabbed the good camera with the long zoom lens, sure enough it is a turkey.
I can’t stop taking pictures of these irises.
Then the real surprise, the fourth bed of irises put forth its first bloom, a white one!
Did I mention how I love white flowers? LOL, yes about a million times.
What’s blooming in your garden now?
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From My Carolina Home 
Thank you, Carole, for the uplifting flower show. We are behind you in blooming here in northern Illinois, but many of the tulips and early daffodils have made their appearance.
Beautiful!
We went from snow to 80° in the space of a week and everything here is growing super fast including the weeds! I love iris but they bloom for such a short time and require regular division. The iris borer is also a plague, so I’ve been reducing the iris. The deer are becoming much worse and are eating everything even the so-called “deer-resistant” plants so I think I will be cutting back on the gardens. Your azaleas are beautiful.
Pat
Wha gorgeous photos! You have a beautiful garden in wonderful surroundings.
Your gardens are beautiful!
Thank you for the beautiful flower show …..it was a lovely start to a rainy, dreary Sunday morning here in Pa……Dot M.
Beautiful photos. In my week at home “between trips” the weather has gone from 45-50 to 85-90 back to 50’s. Spring is starting here.I saw the last of the daffodils before my long trip in April. My tulip bloomed while I was traveling. I came home to white lilacs along the driveway and azaleas in the flowerbeds. Wisteria & a wild dogwood are in bloom in a bush near our pool, and the wisteria are up in the trees along our back fence. Those beautiful purple blossoms only last a short time. The pollen has painted our house, porch, outdoor furniture, cars all green. Because of it, I am waiting to clean off the deck and porches until after I return from the “next” trip. No sitting outside because it make me sneeze when it is so thick. Yesterday my husband said I was making foot prints on the porch in the pollen. Between the 2 of us yesterday, we blew off as much as we could, but we have some trees still starting to bloom/leaf. A little drizzly rain is washing some of it off, but doesn’t do much on the covered areas. Thank goodness for allergy meds! 🙂
your iris’s are beautiful – I had to uncover mine a couple years ago as I was no longer getting flowers and this fall I want to plant more colors and I think I will need to check all of them and see which ones will need more care again but this year I had a lot more blossoms then I did even last year after caring for them better.
Thank you for the hint about getting more blooms from your iris. I questioned why mine never seemed to spread. The flowering trees, bushes and early blooming plants all burst into bloom at the same time here in Michigan!
You live in Paradise, Carole. I love these photos so so much.
Happy Sunday
Carole, the photographs of the flora and fauna are absolutely stunning. You do seem to live in a beautiful place. Do you ever use your pictures on the handmade cards you do? They would be very pretty.
Linda Hodges
Those azaleas are magnificent! The only flowers currently blooming are the plum trees, but FINALLY, our new boy plum tree is flowering at the same time as the girls, so we will finally have plums! Just starting to see some tiny leaves on the trees, I think the apples will bloom next and then our cherry tree. The neighbor’s daffodils are blooming right now and some tulips near downtown that have southern exposure. The neighborhood peonies are about 8 inches tall now. We saw baby rabbits on the lawn this weekend, adorable, but I’m kind of hoping the hawk or owl make a return visit and reduce the population a bit! There are wild turkeys across the creek somewhere. I hear them in the morning when Max and I walk. Spring at last!!
Oh my all your flowers are absolutely stunning. Such a gorgeous Spring bouquet of nature in your yard.
Your flowers are so beautiful, Carole. You must have 10 green fingers! My irises just have buds…none are open but they are so spindly this year I’m not expecting superb blooms. I’ll have to find your earlier posts about uncovering the rhizomes. Seeing these breathtaking beauties made me wish I’d done some better maintenance with mine. I used to have several colors but it seems they are all lavender now. Sigh! Already looking forward to NEXT spring.
Beautiful gardens!!
I am in Virginia, and we have dogwoods and azaleas blooming now, although the blooming is about done. We had some strong winds that knocked so many blooms off the white dogwoods, it looks like it snowed!! Love your irises….I have never seen burgundy ones before…amazing!!
Thanks for sharing your lovely gardens!!
Lovely! Our central Texas soil kills azaleas fast and host as do not fare well in our heat and soil. We can grow irises and they are a delight and tough as nails. Thanks for the garden tour!
Your irises (my favorite flower, the purple iris) are absolutely beautiful!! Thank you for sharing them!!!
Your flowers are all so gorgeous. Here on California’s central coast, mine are at their peak as well along with my 50 + roses. Sadly, we’ve skipped from a week or so of spring directly into summer. It’s been in the 90s the last two days. The week before, we had a couple of nights below freezing. Thank you for sharing your beautiful gardens and wildlife.
Love your flowers! I also have lots of azaleas and iris. But my favorite iris are the pale lavender ones like you have. My grandmother had a long row of those down the side of her yard and when she needed to thin them, she threw the extra into the field across the road. When we built our house 45 years ago, I went into the field and dug up some rhizomes. They are still flourishing today and alway remind me of my grandmother. Plus they have a wonderful scent. All of my other iris seem to do well, but none are as special as the lavender ones!
Such gorgeous captures of Spring in your area!
Thanks for sharing the pictures of your beautiful garden and property! I love the bird photos, too. We’ve been in Washington, DC this week and I’ve seen some unfamiliar flowers growing here, and after seeing your pictures, I think they might be azaleas!
My personal garden is bloomed out, except for a summer blooming vine I don’t know the name of. Around me, people with azaleas have a proliferation of blooms, though, and at the end of the block are two gorgeous light lavender Iris beds.
Your Iris are all beautiful, but I really like the pale ones best, I think. How do you keep ants and squirrels away from the bulbs? All my bulbs of everything have been eaten, except the hyacinth, which barely bloomed this year, though the greenery was lovely. Oh, and 3 or 4 crocus are still there, too. No tulips or anything else, though!
Thanks for the annual spring pictures. I look forward to them each year!
Everything is blooming beautifully and is looking so pretty. No wonder the birds are visiting.
Your garden is beautiful what a treat for the eyes. And soul. Ive not seen the Burgundy irises Before. My favourite Colour. And your azaelas are. Exquisite.
What a beautiful garden, Carole, with the azaleas and iris in flower. My favourite of your irises is the deep purple with white.
I love all your beautiful flower pic’s. I only have daffy’s blooming right now. But I see the white bleeding heart has buds.
You have such a beautiful garden! I really like your title of this post since I’ve been noticing my iris and azaleas blooming. I only have one iris, and three azaleas total, so not quite as many as yours, but beautiful nevertheless.
Carole, I love the view down your driveway with the azaleas. Gorgeous irises!
All your spring flowers are beautiful, the driveway view is stunning. It is nice to see some of the birds that come to your feeder, so different from what we see here. The iris flowers are beautiful.
Your iris blooms seem to be laughing with their tongues out like a goofy dog. Gorgeous photos!
My grandmother had iris, the brown bearded ones, the beautiful purple you have, and the purple with yellow. For years my mother carted around the rhizomes trying to keep some of them, but where they lived the ground water was alkali, and I don’t think she had any left by the time they moved up to Oregon by me. My sis inherited a bunch on a property she bought, so we parceled them out. They just don’t bloom long enough, eh? Love seeing your azalea walks! Bet the bumblebees are in heaven… Our peony has come up, no blooms yet, and the day lilies, but the rest of the garden is not too good, what with baby watch going on! thanks for sharing dear lady
Carole, your irises and azaleas are just beautiful! I love all of the color! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!
Wow the iris and azaleas are all so beautiful! I wish azaleas did better up here but I had to give up on growing them. Isn’t that fun how the turkeys fly up in the trees! I have them here too and I read they will go up to 40 ft. high and spend the night. I would have never guessed that they do that if I hadn’t witnessed it myself. I love seeing nature like this!
It was a pleasure to revisit your post! Thank you for linking with Gardens Galore! Happy Gardening, Carole!