Lifestyle & Entertainment
3 November, 2025
Lamplough gardener shares 15 years of iris beauty
FOR more than 15 years, Beth Day has filled her Lamplough garden with a dazzling array of irises and she’s once again opening her gates to share the colourful display with visitors. Beth began her open garden days in 2010 after years of attending markets from Beaufort to Ballarat.
“We started with the open gardens. It was just a sort of casual thing, but then we figured it was easier to run open days because doing markets, you have to dig up a whole lot of irises that you think people will like. You had to do something with the leftovers you brought home, and that was always a hassle,” she said.
Now, visitors can explore the garden, admire the blooms, and even order specific varieties to collect in December once the plants are ready to dig.
Beth’s love of irises began with a simple family memory.
“Mum used to grow them, she had a white one. Then I saw a little purple one in Melbourne when we lived in Box Hill. So I grabbed that purple iris, planted it up here. I just liked it,” she said.
From there, Beth’s collection slowly grew,
“A friend’s mum was getting rid of some she’d bought, and I hadn’t realised there were black ones, pink ones and other colours, I just thought there were whites and purple.”
From there, her collection flourished into what it is today.
“It just sort of went on from then. And then I started having a go at breeding them just to get more colours in my garden. And that was such fun,” she said.
Beth now has over 200 varieties listed in her catalogue, with even more dotted around the garden, some marked simply as “seedlings,” her own crossbreeds.
She’s even named a few special blooms after family members, including one after her mother, the Laurel Jackson iris.
“Some people think it’s Lauren Jackson after the basketball player,” she laughed. She’s even named some after her sisters and one after her husband, called Jeff’s Choice.
Her faith also shines through her gardening.
“I am a Christian. Mostly, the bees don’t pollinate the irises, so it needs a bit of human intervention. I love partnering with God and creating a new iris. One of my favourites is God’s Fingerprint. It’s got little sort of lines in the bottom, that made me think of God’s fingerprint.”
Beth hosted the first of her four open garden days last weekend, with a few hardy visitors braving the weather to see the early blooms.
“It was a quieter day, but usually that first one is a bit quieter,” she said. “We wouldn’t go to an open garden day on a wet, cold day either!”
The coming weekends will see the garden at its best.
“Next Saturday, then Melbourne Cup, and then the 8th are going to be the maximum flowers out at any one time. So some people want to come and see it when most are out.”
For Beth, opening the garden each year is a labour of love.
“We’ve decided, because the irises keep growing and multiplying, while we’ve got the energy and strength, we’ll just keep having the open days.”
Beth’s Iris Open Garden will be open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, November 1st and then on the 4th, and 8th of November at 31 Lillicur West Road, Lamplough.
For enquiries, call 0438 588 321.
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