I'm starting to like Iris!

I recently posted photos of my first bearded Iris to bloom this year. That was quite a beauty, and it will be difficult to beat its blooms I think. Or should I say "thought". The second of my unknown Iris types is starting to bloom!

I didn't get to see this bloom last year when I got the plants from my new gardening friend Michael, but since they were free plants I didn't really care what the flowers would look like.

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I do care now that I see them, and I think I'm starting to see the attraction that people feel toward Irises.

These flowers are gorgeous, and they even have a slight fruity fragrance. Yummy!

They're predominantly white, with brown or gold markings and just a touch of purple:

White's nice, right? Classic. Simple. Refined.

Actually, I'd have to say that white is just lovely in this case!

I'm not sure if any of the other Irises I have in pots with this one will bloom this year or not -- I don't see any signs of stems. To be honest I don't even know if the other pots contain the exact same variety of Iris either. I seem to remember Mike giving me three different types, but it may have been more.

The final type is completely different from these first two from what I remember, and the foliage is more grassy than these. They prefer more water I think I remember him telling me as he handed them over, but I was in a free plant daze so may have missed something. I'm quite excited to see what their blooms look like now, as I have to say that I'm two for two on these free Irises so far!

Am I turning into an Iris person? I have a tendency to focus and obsess on specific types of plants each year. Bamboo, thymes, sempervivum, elephant ears. I think it will be pretty simple to resist the temptation to get as many different Irises as possible into my garden though, because I haven't even found a spot for any of these yet -- they're been in pots for a year! Surely I can't start collecting a plant that hasn't even been planted permanently yet... but come to think of it, the 20+ different sempervivums I now have aren't in the ground yet either... Hmmm.

Does anybody know if deer eat Iris foliage and/or blooms?

Does anybody have any idea on what cultivar this is?

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