This week has been a busy time for openings. This fragrant patch of Tall Bearded Iris is brightening up the southern side path this week.

Henrietta was our across-the-street neighbor at our previous home on Wave Road in the late 1970s and she shared many of her tall bearded irises with me. Some of her pass-alongs , including this deep yellow beauty, came with me when we moved here 20 years ago this May. I do not have a name for this one.

This soft yellow iris opened yesterday and is another pass-along.  My sister-in-law mailed a huge 4 x 4-foot carton of these irises (to our Wave Road house) all the way from Idaho in the late 1990s. She knew them as Japanese Irises, but I haven’t been able to confirm. It’s a sweet, delicate flower, not as showy as the one above.

I have admired the color of this iris in my current neighbor’s yard for a number of years. When she replanted her entire side border last year I was happy to give it and a few other of her plants a new home. The iris opened just this afternoon.

A second iris opened today, a re-blooming one with large flowers, Iris germanica ‘Immortality’.

Clematis ‘Niobe’ also chose today to unfurl its lovely red petals.

Clematis ‘Jackmanii’ is not fully open but has made good progress today.

Always the first to bloom in my garden Peony ‘Coral Charm’ has strong stems and rich color.  I have had a close watch on this peony the past several weeks, but I looked away a moment this morning and suddenly three flowers had opened when I looked back.

There is a freeze warning for early tomorrow morning, a little late in the season. I know some of you have or will have snow this week too so there is no room for me to complain. It’s 66 F. this afternoon and has been a gorgeous, sunny, albeit extremely windy, spring day in April.