Nola's Iris Garden

 I used to volunteer at my kids' preschool and the teacher would ask me to go outside - since she knew I was stuck inside most of my work days and loved gardening and I would divide the bulbs when it came to time.  Over time from there and other places I had amassed some beautiful irises.  But when we had our backyard landscaped, the landscaper told me "sure" when I asked that they save the iris bulbs, but alas when I got home that day, they were all gone, they were accidentally thrown away. Nola's Iris Garden is a 5 acre private garden free for wandering many months of the year at the top of the San Jose hills at the end of Sierra Road- beyond several curvy miles up the hill.

 They have acres and acres of all sorts of different colored irises, some for sale there and others for mail ordering.
My boys ran around like crazy as 9 year old boys are apt to do.  They loved this beautiful turkey that reminded me of the outfit that Audrey Hepburn wore for My Fair lady for the Ascot Races in this gorgeous black and white plumage.  We also saw heritage chickens, a goat, bunch of people riding horses, cats and dogs....

 From the top you could see the Bay area - you could see the San Francisco bay from here - unspoiled and serenely beautiful.  Hard to believe that this is nestled just above the busy silicon valley life.

Dylan is sitting quietly taking it all in.  You can't see it but beyond his feet is a hillside going straight down covered with irises!

This is one of the varieties I loved called Sharp Shooter- such intense colors and contrast.  I will have to order that one and Secret World on the next go around when they have it.  I was able to get Navy Blue, October (a Summer Sun colored iris)  Preteporter (a pale lavender color) to name a few.  We'll see how my garden develops in the next season.....


These are some of the shots I took with my new
iphone just to see-  It's amazing the quality of the pictures from smartphones and how they have changed over the years. Gotta love technology.