Welcome to Long’s Gardens! We are a third generation, family owned and operated iris farm in the middle of Boulder, Colorado. We were founded in 1905 by J.D. Long. Today the business is carried on by Catherine Long Gates, grand-daughter of J.D., and her husband, Dennis Gates.
For more on our history, see About Us. We specialize in bearded iris, which we sell online, as dig it yourself, and by mail order. Operating an agricultural enterprise in the middle of a city makes for some interesting challenges, but also provides an opportunity for people to slow down, take a break, and relax (take a virtual tour in our Gallery). Come see and smell the iris and enjoy a bit of historical Boulder. We’re open to the public when the iris are in bloom, late April through early June. Please check back often for updates.
Long’s Shorts
Lovely sunny day – great time to come enjoy the bloom!
The tall bearded iris are in bloom. Viewing of the talls should be good through this first week of June (if the weather cooperates). Unfortunately the very dry May with lots of drying winds has lessened the number of blooms, but there are still lots of beautiful blossoms to enjoy. Pictured below is one of our favorite and most dependable talls, Spinning Wheel. It is available in our U-Dig field.
We are open for the Spring bloom season and hoping that many of you will be able to come enjoy it with us. Besides just enjoying the iris blooms and the peacefulness of the farm you might want to take advantage of our Spring U-dig to add some new iris to your garden. Our U-Dig fields are open for digging every day from 9 to 5, through June 16th. The dwarf iris have finished their bloom. And the intermediate iris are about finished. The dwarf and intermediate size iris are marked with photo signs in the U-Dig field so you can still see the colors even though the bloom is over. The Tall bearded (the last of the iris to bloom) are now open. Viewing should be good through the first week of June. Our on-line store is open click here for the catalog. The merchandise portion of our online store is open all year. Click Here to browse the store.
Below: Prince of Burgundy is one of the Intermediate size beauties that you may dig now from our U-Dig field.
In the market for more than plants? – you may satisfy some of your iris desires with our iris t-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags. They also make great gifts. Not sure what to get your gardening friend? How about a gift card? Gift cards may be used for merchandise or to purchase iris plants.
Orders are filled in July and August. Each plant is hand dug. The leaves are trimmed and they get a thorough washing. After that the plants spend some time drying before being carefully packed and sent via Priority Mail to your home.
Over the years many of you have had the pleasure of being greeted and assisted by one of our key staff members, Andy Hanscom. Sadly, Andy died very unexpectedly on April 28, 2021. It was Andy’s 14th season working here.
We are mourning a good life ended much too soon.
Kind hearted, generous, and friendly Andy had a hard time throwing an iris on the compost pile so he became the iris equivalent of Johnny Appleseed, distributing iris plants to countless folks, especially his mountain neighbors.
Updated on June 1, 2024
