Iris

I remember in China I saw iris plants growing in or near water, but I don't recall seeing it very much here.  AT the house where I am house sitting there are two ponds (with gold fish) and a large urn with small fish, and all have iris plants growing.  This week the plants flowered.

The plants are tall, with a number of flower heads.  Spectacular really.

Iris

I've taken quite a few photos of Irises - because I have "found" them in the most amazing places.

There seemed to be quite a few flowering in China in spring, and also in South Korea, where I saw masses of them in flower making a magic scene.

Sadly I've not seen them in such numbers here in Australia, though I am sure that in New South Wales, or Victoria there are huge fields of them - I just haven't seen them.

I purchased a bunch (5 stems) today, some of them were partly opened like this one, but others were still in bud and surely will open over the next few days.

As I have a new Canon SLR Camera, I've been taking lots of photos - and thought this one was good. Enjoy.

Irises

I love to see irises, and they are in the flower shops at the moment. That' not the reason for posting this, but I've been going through and transferring my photos to my new program Memory Manager, and came across this photo.

I don't recall that I have posted it here before, and quite lazily I haven't checked either.

It was at a pond at the entrance to an amazing mountain in China at a place called Tonglu.


Along with a group of students we climbed up the inside of a mountain - there were stone steps and we kept going up in this amazing wonderland of stone, water (a huge waterfall was at the top of the mountain) so it was wet, slippery, and cold.

When we reached the part where the steps were surrounded by a cage and the steps went up vertically, my friend and I baulked. We were both over 60 years of age, and that surely would have punished our backs, and legs.

We were escorted back down another route. Luckily.

Iris

On our visit to a park at Tonglu (Southern China) the gardens impressed us, especially the display of irises. Actually there were only a few blooming - but many many more plants ready to burst forth in flower. These were growing at the edge of a pool in which many colourful and large fish were swimming making it a very wonderful scene.