General Discussion & Chat: ۞ Sweet Interruptions ۞137, 1 by bonjon

bonjon wrote:
Morning all! well, it would still be morning if I was still in Kansas City. Randall pampered me this morning, bringing me my pills bedside with kisses, then letting me go back to sleep. was a bit worn out from everything.

here's the scuttlebutt on the fleurs....very few TBs in bloom. mostly the median irises, and a wee handful of siberians. That area has had a very cold and wet spring which set prime bloom back about 10 days. about now the TBs will start blooming. each day that went by, the bloom got better..... almost. The 2nd day of bus tours, it started to rain on us but didn't, then did that evening, with torrents of rain, high winds and hail. the last day all the blooms were shredded.

We saw a lot of differing levels of culture. Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens was thrilled to become a display area, had lined the guest irises out in beds where they basically just stripped off the sod. since the beds were below the surrounding sod level, you guessed it, the water pooled and they experienced a lot of plant loss. It looked like they did nothing else to help the culture, either. Contrast that with the "Two Jims' Garden", where another irisarian helped them with bed prep and fertilization - they had the best bloom of just about any garden. Both these gardens had other plants to see as well. Overland had a "Monet" garden that was gorgeous, with older irises incorporated into the plan. the two Jims' garden was a delight to the eye, with lots of species iris plantings.

On the optional Tuesday tours, we saw 4 St. Joseph area gardens. Here's a photo of the only blooming irises they had, which is up near the house where it would have been microclimate warming.