Today is Flag Day, which honors this date in 1777 when the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag. I have a different flag on the edge of my pond – the Northern Blue Flag, a native iris found is marshes and other wetlands.
A Flag for Flag Day
A native iris, the blue flag, is often found on the edges of water or marshes and is one flower my deer do not seem to eat so at least the bees have a few flowers to enjoy now that they are blooming this season.
Native Iris
The spring flower may have been very late this year, but the summer flowers might be a little ahead from other years as these iris add some color on the sunny day.
Sunny Irises
Now that Christmas Day is over and it wasn’t a real white one, I wouldn’t mind if it got warm and green again with blooming flowers. But instead the forecast is calling for 3 to 5 inches of snow with blowing snow and even some freezing rain so it will be months before flowers begin to bloom again.
Summer Iris
This iris represents the recent hot summer days as it looks like it is burning up.
Hot Sunny Iris
There are some people who take close up images of snowflakes, which isn’t easy to do as they have to be kept cold so they don’t melt. I rather do some close up photos when it is warmer, like inside an iris blossom.
Iris Inside
Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 to commemorate the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777. Today were was another type of ‘flag’ waving in the wind. A native iris, the Northern Blue Flag is often found at the margins of water. The blossom has large lobes that bees use as landing platforms to attract insects to the nectar glands. This wild iris is also a deer-resistant perennial.
Blue Flag on Flag Day
This warm, sunny day in June is showing off more color from the irises starting to bloom this season.
Iris in June
The summer flowers seem so far away when snowing is falling this evening and the predicted rain tomorrow won’t sprout blooms when the ground is frozen. There are 325 species and 50,000 registered varieties of irises. The iris earned its name from the ancient Greek Goddess Iris, a messenger to the gods who was thought to use the rainbow as a bridge between heaven and earth. On a winter day, a picture of an iris is a bridge to summer.
One Iris
Besides the native irises in the water, this planted iris was lucky that it was later in shooting up and missed the deer munching like the other earlier irises which were all nipped off. So there was a little blue waving on flag day.
A Lucky Iris
