I thought you may want to know that Iris of Sissinghurst is introducing a monthly blog starting this month.This will contain stories and articles about the world of iris.If you look on our home page it now includes a heading Blog, click on this to read this months story. I hope there will be something of interest over the coming months.
The period between this years spring and early summer has seen a heatwave in late March followed by several dry weeks as well as frosty nights. The bearded iris in the nursery have not appreciated these conditions. The short and intermediate bearded iris flowered early but did not hold their flowers for more than a few days. The tall bearded iris did not show signs of flowering until mid May and are still in flower now. This would suggest that in the south east of the country the bearded iris season is up to three weeks behind the expected flowering cycle. It was a great relief to finally have some sustained period of rain at the beginning of this month, albeit for a short period.At the time of writing no further rain is forecast for the next few weeks. I wonder if this means another dry and warm summer.
The nursery will not be attending any shows this summer. I was paricularly disappointed not to exhibit at the Kent Garden Show. I understand that the show was a success with lots of people able to attend and have the opportunity to buy plants. This was the first occasion for many years that Iris of Sissinghurst was not in attendance on two successive years. I really hope that we are able to be in our normal position in 2022.
The nursery is planning to hold an open day in September this year. This is of course dependent on the progress made in tackling the pandemic. I will ensure that a decision is made well in advance and that details of the opening will be publicised via this news page and the other media outlets we use. It would be great to see many of our regular and new customers at the opening.