What's Bloomin'? Edition 9

Bearded Iris - Iris germanica. I'm excited to report that most of our irises have actually bloomed this year. We planted them 4 years ago and didn't see any blooms until last year, and even then it was only two. I was ready to dig them all up and move them, but this year we were rewarded with an abundance of blooms. The white and yellow came from J's mom, and the white blooms are actually so big we have to stake them up, otherwise they lay on the ground. The pinks are from my mom, who got them from her sister-in-law who has since passed away. This woman, my aunt, lived in Arizona and used to raise Irises. It's neat to think that what she grew has been passed along to different family members.

Strawberry Begonia - Saxifraga stolonifera. I first saw this plant at J's parent's house. It makes such a nice ground cover, the leaves are bicolored and kind of furry looking. We planted this one last year, so this is the first year it has bloomed, and the flowers although tiny are really, really neat looking. Now that we know it does well in the soil here we have planted more. The leaf is used in Japanese cooking.

Blood Iris - Iris sanguinia. There were several clumps of this around the yard when we moved here. We didn't see them bloom until the second year because they had been repeatedly mowed over for a number of years. I always thought they were called Japanese Irises until just recently. The butterflies and hummingbirds like them.

Snowball bush - Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of this until the blooms were on their way out, but it sure was pretty this spring. The snowballs were much smaller this year for some reason, which is a good thing. In years past the blooms have been so large they have broken branches, especially after a heavy rain. You can't see it but we do have bungee cords in the center to help support the branches.  I have no idea which type of snowball bush this is as there are over 300 different kinds. I always thought it was an Annabelle, but in recent image searches the leaves on it don't look like that of an Annabelle.