The Irises Find the Sun

Most of the flowers I enjoyed in April are still lingering, while a few, like the Globe Lily (Calochortus albus), made only a brief appearance. The most prolific flower in May is Iris fernaldii. A few began blooming in late April, but now the fields are full of them.

This year, irises are appearing in places where I haven’t seen them before, especially in areas where trees have died and opened the canopy to sunlight. They spread by underground rhizomes, yet it still baffles me how new patches emerge so far from established colonies. The hillside feels as if it has been quietly waiting for the right moment to reveal them.