Early spring is starting out to be rather warm and dry, and predictable. First the snowdrops flower, then the witchhazels. TPP mentioned this and the woman asked yellow or red flowers. Both. She answers, Of course. Then Crocus of various sorts, and colors, but a lot more gold than TPP remembers. One of the most striking spring flowers is Iris reticulata. It's a bulb not a rhizome. Here they are all of 4 inches tall pushing up through the leaf litter.
Here in Lincolnland we have the city of Princeton just NW of where the Illinois river decides to go south rather than west. Princeton is a lot like the city of the same name in the east except here there is no university of the same name. What is there is Hornbakers, purveyors of iris, daylilies, and hostas. Since the peak flowering season for iris happened over Memorial Day weekend when the Flyguy and Aunt Nan were visiting. Since Flyguy is an iris fancier, we mounted a field trip in spite of extremely iffy and troubling weather, but after crossing the weather front twice, once through a harrowing thunderstorm, it turned out OK because "it never rains on a field trip". Here's a picture of a little less than half of the iris display bed where you can walk up and down the rows with your order form checking off varieties you just have to have. In particular on this day, following a thorough pounding, it was easy to assess those with robust flowers and flowering stalks.
