My flower of the day, part of Cee’s FOTD challenge, is this gorgeous yellow iris blooming in my garden. I love my iris plants. I also grow a deep purple and pink iris in my gardens.
Iris plants spread at a good rate, but they rarely become invasive, and are easy to dig out and share with friends when they take over too much room.
A plant I’m having trouble with this year is yarrow. I have this nice clump near the air conditioner. I appreciate its tenacity in this inhospitable dry soil. The plant spreads a bit each year, but for the most part is easy to control.
The flip side of this story is the yarrow sown last year via a pack of mixed wildflowers. These yarrow plants are not cooperative. They have returned and spread like a noxious weed. I am having a terrible time pulling the long tap roots out of the rich soil in the back yard plot. Yarrow is a medicinal herb for muscle aches, but I certainly don’t need this much medicine, and if I keep yanking it up, it’s going to give me a backache. The moral of the tale: read the back of mixed wildflower packets and don’t plant any that contain yarrow.
I love my Rudbeckia Daisies, but they also spread and can take over any plot they are in. Each year I end up pulling plants out of the beds and also seedlings out of the lawn. Still, I wouldn’t eradicate the Rudbecka altogether; I love the tall yellow stems of daisies they produce in mid-summer.
MINDING MY P'S WITH Q 
Sometimes we just have to take the good with the bad. Beautiful yellow iris.
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Thanks!
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I have a small hill that needs a hardy plant. I may check out yarrow!
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I do appreciate the one clump that grows in a spot where nothing else seems to thrive. Yarrow might be a good choice for a piece of ground that is difficult.
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After my sister-in-law helped dig up iris that had quit blooming, I waited two years for the replanted things to put on a show. This year we had the reward with lots of blooms.
I don’t know if the first owners planted yarrow, but I seem to spend a lot of time pulling it out all around the garden. How I wish I liked invasive plants and would give up pretty things that resist growing in my garden!
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Oh Anne, I can really sympathize with the yarrow. I am going to pull every little sprig of it from now on except for the one clump that grows where everything else fails. I will be careful there to not let the flowers go to seed. I’m glad to hear you had a iris show this year. They are amazing. I just wish they lasted longer, but then maybe I wouldn’t appreciate them so much!
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Laughing…sounds like I’m sorry for the yarrow when I read it back…I should really sympathize ‘with you’ over the yarrow.
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Mine are not all flowering at once. That makes the show less impressive, but it lasts longer.
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Mine also have staggered bloom times. The grape/purples first, then the yellows, and then the tall pink ones that always seem to catch a thunderstorm and get beaten down to the ground.
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My garden started with varied purple, and now the whites are blooming. I’m not sure what else there is, but there are buds ready to open. I feel sorry for your tall pink ones that get beaten down. Poor things!
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Oh, wow! I have some yarrow too, and didn’t realize that’s what it was. I’ve always wanted iris in our yard.
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I’ve been battling yarrow sprouting from old roots now. I will be very careful in the future to keep only keep the one plant. If I have more sprout from a wildflower packet I will pull it out while it is small.
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