Legend says the name for the Iris flower came from a Greek Goddess who rode the rainbow. Love the legend and I love how this flower as delicate as it might look, it’s a hardy plant, perennial, easy to plant, easy to care for and very reliable. It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, something you want to see roaming in your garden. Place the Iris in partly shaded area or morning sun area, never in a scorching full sun and they will grow luxuriant.
Among the 300 Iris species available Birded Iris is the easiest to grow, it blooms in late spring after tulips, daffodils, peonies and poppies. Bearded Iris likes to be divided every few years and from the rhizome (root bulb) after blooming is over, otherwise its blade-like leaves will not bloom into flowers much. Iris flowers come in a wide variety and hybrids. Water Iris likes to live near a pond or a water source, but doesn’t like to be planted directly in the water.
Water the Iris not so often especially if the ground is covered with mulch, bark chips or stone pebbles all moisture retaining materials. Feeding and fertilizing a perennial is just as easy. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium are the basic element of their food and in that order are represented on the bag with numbers, for ex. 5-10-10 or 5-10-5 or 10-10-10, thus choose a fertilizer with the middle number no lower than the other two. Basically you want the Phosphorus to be the highest number. Now that you have planted a beautiful patch of Iris, bring those colors in.
I have my patch of Iris across from kitchen door leading to the kitchen spice garden (all the spices I need for cooking). Inside, in my eating area, I have an attractive purple wall that at night creates beautiful atmospheres according to the type of lights I turn on. That’s right a dark color wall requires games of lights. (Click on each photo to view it larger).
My color board is self-explanatory, however to add a more natural environment in your home décor with this color palette and to soften the purple boldness, consider using a grasscloth wallpaper on three walls (see it in my board background) and one wall in purple, with the rest of the colors in this scheme used on furniture and accessories.
In your purple wisdom décor, add some purple amethyst stone to carry the energy of fire, passion, creativity and spirituality into your space wherever you will have this purple palette. Purple amethyst is a semi-precious stone highly esteemed for its legendary powers to stimulate and soothe mind-emotions. Purple amethyst is part of the Quartz family considered as precious as diamonds in ancient civilizations.
Another name for amethyst is “Gem of Fire” for all its passions and power to increase intelligence, even augmenting shrewdness in business matters. For this reason, purple is advisable in creative spaces and offices.
Like all the purple expressions, purple amethyst is associated with royals and religious people signifying dignity or higher status. This is a stone that protects against evil and connects to the Divine. Today we use it in meditation as a stone of spirituality to bring the mind to a quiet state and to purify a person’s aura of any negative energy. Ciao,
Valentina
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Copyright © 2016 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved
As a designer in business since 1990, I am interested in helping people designing their interior and exterior spaces with an overall feeling of peace, relaxation and harmony that will draw them home eagerly. I am always looking to add that special touch with original findings to the spaces I design. Featured on Vogue Italia magazine, Gentry and many prominent magazines in California,
appeared on RAI, National Italian T.V., my stories continues. Find copies of my three books on
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