In late May I took a quick trip to New Jersey to visit one of my favorite gardens – Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Upper Montclair. Established in the 1920s in honor of Frank H. Presby, a founder of the American Iris Society. the collection of irises at the gardens includes over 1500 different varieties of irises, featuring 10,000 plants with over 100,000 blooms each season. For a few weeks each spring, Presby offers a chance to see everything from heirloom irises dating back to the 1500s to the latest showy irises. As you can imagine – it’s absolutely incredible to see.
In my two visits to the gardens this year, I photographed over 60 types of bearded irises. My guess is there were several hundred varieties of irises blooming while I was there. I could easily have spent several days photographing irises and still not photographed all the amazing blossoms.
Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip.
Better Than Butter Iris
Better Than Butter Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Cavewoman Iris
Cavewoman Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Celtic Glory Iris
Celtic Glory Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Florentine Silk Iris
Florentine Silk Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Glimmer of Hope Iris
Glimmer of Hope Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Husky Iris
Husky Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Magic Mirror Iris
Magic Mirror Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Song of Norway Iris
Song of Norway Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
That’s All Folks Iris
That’s All Folks Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
Wench Iris
Wench Iris © 2016 Patty Hankins
I’ll be sharing the full set of the iris photos I took at Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in the coming weeks.
In the coming months, I’ll be offering some of these photos for sale on my website. In the meantime, I do have several other iris photos available for sale. You can see the ones currently available at http://beautifulflowerpictures.com/store/iris/