The secret colors of Waitsburg

A low maintenance, yet highly rewarding secret iris garden, created and maintained by local photographer Bill Rodgers, is in its third year of bloom in Waitsburg, and it is impressive.

The sprawling garden has rhizomes that stretch their roots across the state to Mercer Island, where Rodgers originally began growing them in a community garden. He brought starts with him when he moved to College Place, where a friend let him start a garden in a private horse pasture. After moving to Waitsburg three years ago, he found the daily weeding and care needs were getting difficult to meet, so when the opportunity to grow closer to home arose, he took it.

"They are a lot happier here," Rodgers said. "Especially since they removed that tree. It put a lot of shade on the plot, and it's made an amazing difference this year."

Irises are a very easy-going plant, and, as Rodgers put it, you don't have to do much most of the year.

"They are very easy to take care of," he said. "They are drought-resistant and freeze-resistant.

Around March, a lot of the leaves die back, so you have to go out and pull everything out because you don't want stuff on top of the roots because they will rot. The new leaves come up, and the flowers follow."

Irises require well-draining soil, as the roots are susceptible to rot if they stay too wet, and they grow best with at least six hours of sunlight per day. Rodgers said he has to dig up and separate clumps of roots to keep the plants from fighting each other for nutrients. He keeps what he needs to continue expanding his garden and gives the extra roots or divisions away.

"When I first moved up here, I was leaving boxes of divisions in front of the hardware store, and Ten Ton and people were coming in and getting boxes to give away," he said. "They are now all over the place!"

Though the garden is a well-kept secret, Bill takes bouquets to local businesses, including Ten Ton Coffee, to share the beauty of the garden and brighten the day.