Run down to Christmas

Corby managed to rescue the Dahlia tubers from the shed bed before the hard frost arrived.  They will be dried off a bit and stored in the shed until they produce cuttings in the Spring. Now 20 tulips have been planted, Mr Tesco's cheap mix of pastel and purple in a central array. Lily-flowered Burgundy will go in the back row, and multi-headed Antoinette in the front row. These should flower first, and be short.
                                                                                       
Corbie continues to pick the long spears of silver from the Iris under the kitchen window.  These open in the kitchen warmth into the most increadible helio and tiger striped flowers.

This is Iris unguicularis, the Algerian iris which is also found in Greece.  It likes a stoney site at the base of the south wall of the house.  I managed to track down the name unguicularis - it means shaped like a claw or narrow-shanked (the petals). It blooms from late October into Spring and produces a flush of flowers every week or two - hundreds in all.  The flowers look very delicate yet survive outdoors through the worst weather except that something eats them.  The buds are frequently eaten off at the tip and sometimes are completely shedded.  Mice or snails?  It is probably mice as the slug pellets don't seem to be the answer.  The plant must be 30 years old as mother Jean from Lesmahagow brought a bit down.  A couple of years back, the plant almost died off - disease? -but has grown back strongly more recently.