Irises... and Reflections on Perennial Gardening

We returned home from our Prince Edward Island vacation, wondering how our perennials were doing...

There had been lots of rain, so there was a profusion of growth...

New flowers were in bloom, mostly irises...

Large purple ones (surrounded by gout weed)...

(Lots of weeding to do!)

Bunches of smaller irises.

Other low-lying mauve flowers...

These look like they've finished blooming.

Are they carnations? Geraniums?

I don't know.. And they're interspersed with other flowers.

In my years of perennial gardening, I've discovered that there are three stages to a perennial garden:

First - when the spaces between the flowers are larger than the flowers themselves...

Not sure when this picture of our front garden was taken - but we traded in our white van in 2010, so it must be before that!

Doesn't the flower bed look tidy?!

The second stage is when the flowers fill out a bit and the garden beds look lovely and full. This usually takes about two or three years.

Here is a picture of our front garden bed at that stage...

But then - a few years later - things get overcrowded... That's the stage my flower beds are at now...

Like a parent of grown-up children, I've lost control!