And again, thanks so much for sharing these photos! You have great photography skills and a great subject matter to choose from. Your photos are a feast for the eyes

Some of the Gardener's World episodes do coverage of the flower shows available in the UK and I've watched all of them - seeing them virtually is not the same as being there in person, but it is as close as I can get sitting here in Virginia. I've watched RHS Malvern, RHS Hampton Court Palace, Gardner's World Live, RHS Tatton Park, and RHS Chelsea.

You are so lucky to live in the UK where there are so many RHS flower shows and so many private gardens to visit that are part of the National Garden Scheme, and then there are all those places that hold the national garden collections that are available to visit too. There isn't anything quite like it in the US. Very envious!

I'm trying to get as familiar with the location of the counties and towns of the UK as I am with the location of the states in the US, so I look at the map for every garden that is featured on Gardener's World. I'm slow at learning, but I'm making progress

Thank you Terri, you are very kind.

I think that looking up the places from GW would be a great way of learning about the uk- to be fair I'd also benefit from that!

I am fortunate that Essex is quite central to get to many places with some stunning gardens in Kent, Surrey, Suffolk etc and Central London where the flower show is is just about an hour away by train. But some of the loveliest gardens I've seen are the little gems in the National Garden Scheme. I've even toyed with opening mine in May so that I can share my irises- but I don't think my garden as a whole is quite up to scratch! May be in a few years…

How I would love to visit some of your iris fields one day though….

I love irises, but somewhat struggle with them in my gardens. My property is mostly woodland, so the majority of the garden areas are shade gardens. There are a few sunny areas that have been carved out closest to the house though and that is where I have irises.

I had a great day trip excursion with two gardening friends to one of the iris growing fields in West Virginia - a place called Exline Gardens. There were blooming irises as far as the eye could see - many acres. They give you a clipboard to use as you walk about to check off the varieties you wish to buy. Then you make a trip back in July after they have dug up your order. That was a lot of fun!

I also attend a local chapter of the Iris Society annual sale where members dig up rhizomes from their personal gardens to sell. I've gotten some really nice varieties from these collectors and fantastic prices!

Some of the iris have been in the ground for many years now, and although still alive, they are not thriving at all. Barely flowering and definitely not multiplying into nice big clumps. Last summer I dug them all up, trimmed up rotten parts of rhizomes, and potted them into containers that I can move about to find a more suitable growing spot. I plan to monitor their growth/non-growth with more focus over the next couple of years and see what I need to do to get them to thrive, not just survive.