Garden Update May 2014 #2: The long journey of the Irises

The long journey of the irises begins on 2/23/14 when they spent their last day in Decatur, Georgia.  On that day they were loaded into the back of my blue Honda Fit to start their journey north.

This is my photo of the starter garden my parents gave us in the back of my car, somewhere in Tennessee (note the Monteagle Escarpment in the background).  The irises are in the front and center.

The starter garden laid out by our back porch on 2/23/14.

Trying to start a garden in February is extremely optimistic in Nashville (and probably possible in Decatur, Georgia).  Here is the starter garden inside on 3/2/14 during the first of many cold snaps (actually, we had an ice storm).

We decided to start moving our starter garden to the yard on 3/8/14.

Here are two of the irises the next day near our back yard path.

Our first iris bloomed on 4/8/14.  It was so lovely.  One of our irises is from my grandmother's house, one is from my great aunt's house, and one is from my parent's house. We had our last frost on 4/15/14 (the average last frost in Nashville is on April 16th) and on April 20th we got some purple irises and pink lillies from one of our neighbors. We decided to move all of our irises and lillies higher up in our yard because they like better drained soil (our backyard is on a slope).

This little guy bravely tried to flower immediately after the transplant. This photo is dated 4/27/14.

This iris was next and showed some promise.

Such a beautiful bloom from today, 5/1/14.  The long journey is over!  I always associate irises with May and my initial "I".