Iris are blooming

These iris were here when we moved in. We bought this place in late winter, so I had no idea they were even there until that spring.

I don't know what cultivar they are, but I really like them. Iris and roses are probably one of my favorite flower combinations.

They are extremely hardy and have gone through many droughts with little irrigation. They just started blooming yesterday. That whole area smells like sweetarts to me. It is wonderful!

When the patch first started growing only 2 sent up flowers. They were very over crowded and had expanded out of their area on to landscaping fabric that was semi buried.They were very sad looking and some of the rhizomes were mushy.
I thinned them out carefully removing the diseased and rotting rhizomes. I pulled out some more and gave them to a friend. The soil was horrible so I gradually added amendments without burying the rhizomes. Earthworms set up shop in the iris bed. This spring I gave them a little kelp fertilizer two times and they said thank you by setting out all these buds.
To the left you see coffee ground scratched into the soil. The grounds will slowly breakdown there and they attract earthworms. The soil here is clay... very compacted very fine clay that lacks a lot of nutrients. Bit by bit that is changing.
This fall I will divide these yet again and expand the patch as well as share some extras.