A Long Drink of Water

The garden is responding well to the rain, especially in the back where all the colours and textures are starting to "pop". The star of the show today is this dwarf iris ('Grape Orbit') I just planted on the weekend. There were no signs of any blooms when I planted it.


I am really loving black mulch for providing a perfect backdrop to all the colourful foliage and flowers. You can see the difference between black mulch and regular mulch over by the elm, where we have a path of brown mulch that wraps around the back of the tree.


The variegated leaves of 'Patriot' hosta, and the beautiful chartreuse colour of 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort look particularly good against the black mulch. The only thing the black colour doesn't do much for is dark foliage like 'Obsidian' heuchera, or 'Chocolate Chip' ajuga (bugleweed) without its blooms. 'Peach Flambe' heuchera and 'Gold Bullion' centaurea look really nice, though.


Luckily right now the bugleweed is blooming, so we can enjoy its tiny purple spikes for the next little while until it disappears into the background again.


You can see them down at the front of the border under the maple in this view.


In among the tulips by the chain link fence, the irises are really starting to come into their own. That dwarf iris has plenty of friends back there.