Garden Projects #14

Karen, I am going to have to double check on my Geum tomorrow as I don't recall seeing them lately. Hope I didn't loose them last winter as I am a fan too.

Lucy, How do you collect pollen from Iris and do you use it immediately to pollinate another iris or what?

Wha, Love that your paths are getting rail thin. You may have to get a narrow Gauge lawn mower. All looks wonderful. I should have known you would have a Acer palmatum Ryusen and no doubt bigger than ours! I am going to leave it in the container by the front door for the summer and then plant it out in the fall. Not sure where yet. It will speak to me, I hope.

I am hoping you are right about finding the right fitting for the old falls. The newer ones are made much better, but too thick for our old falls. I think they improved the design due to what happened to ours as it is easy to see why the flimsy flange around the bulkhead fitting leaked. But we will figure it out, though I was hoping we could put it all back together tomorrow and I could plant my new kids along side the stream which obviously won't be happening until we get the flange issue solved. Patti

fantastic garden setting, Bill.

Patti: We use locking forceps to collect pollen, stick the anthers in a coin envelope. Sometimes we use it right away if the flower we want is open. Otherwise store envelope in a jar is 'Flower-dry in the frig until needed. We hybridize pumila, MDB & the 4 median classes. DH doesn't do borders as they remind him of talls. I also do medians including the borders. My avatar is MTB 'Twilight Calm' one of my plants, although it was a bee pod.

Marilyn, I'm beginning to love the geums, too. A friend got me interested in them last year, and lately there seem to be more available.

Wow! Patti, yes, you will be a planting fool. Bummer about the issues with the falls. That would get me very discouraged. Hope you get it straightened out soon. I hope all your geums survived.

Looking great, Bill! I, too, like how your paths are getting thinner. I've been striving for that lately myself, as I'm getting tired of so much mowing.

I got a bunch more work done on a bed on the southwest side of our place. Renovating another bed over there, across from the other bed I've been renovating. Planted a few more daylilies. Here are the ones I got planted today:

Spacecoast Starburst
Lindy Twirl
Mister Lucky
Substantial Evidence

These are ally iffy as to whether or not they'll survive. What happened was, I ordered too many daylilies last year (I know, not surprising). Anyhow, I got a bunch planted in a temporary bed, and others in the gardens. But then there were a whole bunch that did not get planted and sat in buckets of water all winter. Needless to say, most were killed by crown rot from so much moisture. I'm quite disappointed about it, too. I should have at least heeled them in, which is what I will do from now on, if I end up ordering more than I have time to plant.

Anyhow, believe it or not, I have not ordered a single daylily this year. I have waaaaayyyyyy to many in pots that need planting, plus I have to move the ones that got planted in the temporary bed. Now that I'm renovating beds, I have more room to place them. In certain beds I have many that will be potted up to sell, and when those clumps get dug, I will put in the new daylilies that are waiting for space to become available.

That bed I was renovating today was getting choked out by tradescantia, tall garden phlox, golden rod, raspberries, and Jerusalem artichokes. I have space for some dwarf iris in there now, too, which I'll be getting at Jan's swap in a couple weeks. Maybe I'll put my blue tall garden phlox in there.

Very nice, Iris! I didn't know you hybridized.

Karen

Bill:The gardens look great.Thats a lot of territory.

Lucy, it must be satisfying to make your own lovely cultivars. I love the name 'Twilight Calm' for your ativar.

Me, too, Rosemary. I could feel my shoulders relax just reading the name 'twilight calm'

It's a very pretty iris! Patti, hope that the water problem is fixed soon......nice choices on the plants......I have 3 different epimediums, they are so easy to care for.....Karen, sorry about the waterlogged DLs. I had to keep many in buckets & a wheelbarrow full of water when they did our road over a few years ago....all survived, & I'm hoping they'll bloom this year.

Love the color of that iris and the name too!!

Thanks Marilyn. Most of them were a total loss.

I got more work done tonight on the garden that I was renovating yesterday. It's coming along nicely. I got a bunch more stuff planted, and got it all watered in.

Karen

Thank you for the iris comments.

Lucy, your hybridizing work sounds like real "work" but it must be fascinating to see some results though I assume you have to wait for years. What is a bee pod? A natural cross made by a bee? I like the name 'Twilight Calm' too, mine would have to be 'Twilight Confusion' or 'Twilight Calamity".

Been hard at it trying to get the weeding and planting done before the mulching guys catch up with me. We (mostly them) have gotten down 12 yards so far, but we have to wait until we get 10 more yards of mulch tomorrow. I thought is was going to rain this afternoon,but it has held off. Hope we get some rain tonight.

DH went ahead and ordered a different falls with a better bulkhea, d so we will have to do a little alteration once it comes before the endless stream is up and running again. The dogs are very annoyed that it is dry now. Their swimming hole is gone. I miss the sound. And I am anxious to replant the side we had to tear up to get the hose out with some new kids I bought for it at Garden in the Woods and at the primula show.

This morning I dug up a few hundred Galanthus nivalis (snow drops) today and transplanted them to a bed in the woods as they were so over crowded. Not sure it is the right time to move them, but worth a try. We will know next January if it was a wasted hour.

I took some shots of part of the garden today. Good year for tulips. I am pleasantly surprised how many keep returning each year. Patti

A few more. Patti

Patti grand as ever

looks beautiful Patti!!

Really lovely.

Love the tulips in blocks of color.....mine are scattered here & there, just don't winter reliably.

patti the color looks great - and I really like that bird house hanging from the tree in pic 2 of the first batch :)

I planted 6 tulips of the multl flower type last fall, but really too bushed weeding irises to enjoy. I will take my kneeler out tomorrow & sit on the flip side & enjoy tomorrow. Started to make an iris cross this afternoon so it shower. It does take awhile for flowers to appear, but not as long as if we were doing tall bearded. It's fun, that's why we do it.

This message was edited May 8, 2013 10:35 PM

Hope you enjoy tomorrow, Lucy.

Patti, your place is looking great. You really do have a showplace there. Btw, the snow drops will be fine transplanted now. I never have a problem transplanting and dividing bulbs in the spring.

Marilyn, if you want tulips that come back reliably every year, get to Darwin hybrids. The 'Appledorn' variety that I have, have been coming back every year for quite a few years now. it's been at least 6 years since I planted them, maybe 7.

Karen

Here are some recent pictures of 'Appledorn'.

Karen

Thanks, Karen. Those are very pretty!

Beautiful Patti & Karen!

rain overnight DH says many irises opened up. I have not been out as yet to do a list.

Our rain was a bust! One down burst that lasted less than a minute.

Thanks for the encouragement and compliments all. Special birdhouse
was made by our very own Wha. Good eyes.

Mulch just arrived, but no helpers today, so I thinking about starting to empty the GH today. Bear of a job. May is a tough month on the back. Mulch guys are available again in the morning.

I agree about Darwin tulips and will post some shots and a list of some others that are stil going after being planted years ago in s few days. But when I get a tulip we love I keep adding a few more of it each year so it doesn't disappear. I do the same thing with some foods we buy for the pantry. So We end up with way too many jars of capers or boxes of certain crackers or types of pasta. I have no excuse for my over indulgence for narcissus. Have a good day outside all. Patti

Thanks, Marilyn and Celeste.

Patti, I don't think we got much rain here either, although it looks like we did. I'll have to check below the soil and see how far went down.
Yes, Patti, please post that list, as I would like to know what other tulips will come back reliably. I would like to get more, but only ones that are reliably perennial.

Karen

Funny, Patti...I have a cupboard with several bottles of white balsamic vinegar.....it's the only one I like!

SDB Snow Tree is out.

great. Our rain brought out several more irises & the beech tree suddenly sprouted leaves. total overnight & this afternoon comes to 1.25".

Lucy, Ma, so right about the leaves appearing today. We noticed several Japanese Maples that seemed bare yesterday, but covered today with leaves. The Shad bloomed today and tomorrow it looks like we will have the crab apples out.

Lucy, OH, SDB iris are popping out here too. I will post a shot of some that came out recently

Robin, at least your vinegar will age nicely. I also seem to collect dried beans and rice, but I think that is smart if we have a disaster. DH is not amused.

Karen I will post the list as soon as the tulip season is over with photos. Glad to know that moving the snowdrops is OK. I am about to move more Narcissus which always works especially if I remember to water them in well.

Today was extremely productive but I over did it and am suffering with a back ache. I dug out about 4'x50' of an area in front and along one side of our veggie bed. Then DH pitched in to help me dig out holes in this new space to sink in the 70 or more pots that contain our collection of Hippeastrum. DH lugged them all out of the GH and we sunk them all in the new space. I am not sure this is the best hair brained idea that I ever had, but I think they will get regular watering from the sprinkler we use for the veggie bed ( thanks to Wha) and in the fall I can just lift them to take back inside the house. We then pruned several Scrub Oaks, a Viburnum and several Burning Bushes before I crawled back into the house.

The replacement for our falls for the endless stream came today, so we will be installing it by the week end. I will take the potted herbs out of the GH tomorrow and anything else that I think is ready for the weather if I can move. Patti

wonderful that you have some species iris as well as the dwarfs. Our 'With Castanets' is in a bed which has not bloomed as yet. Very micro-climate here.

I have Buster & Yippy Skippy blooming.....Patti, can't believe you have 70 amaryllis! I have 5, & am already thinking what a pain it is to get them outside....along with my elephant ears & the fuchsias I've overwintered for several years...can't bring them out yet, though, as we have frost warnings for Sunday night.

Our Stark Brothers colonnade apple trees came.#3 to be planted Sat.where the stakes are.
Scarlet Spire.

glad the sprinkler is getting use patti - I was just wondering to myself if it worked better for you than me. leaves are exploding here as well

Good location, Jo.....you'll get a nice vertical line there....

Patti, your bulb pics from a couple of days ago evoke memories of Hidcote, this taken on a rainy day in April '08.

Jo Ann, that apple will provide you with some privacy and shade and a pie or two! I can see a bench out there in the future. Good choice.

Wha, that sprinkler is amazing as is your bird house.

Today DH and a friend took out the old falls and hooked up the new one. But we need to rebuild the whole area around the top as it was quite a different shape, but it is much beefier so it will be better. They are testing it to make sure there is no leakage. We will need to rework the path that runs by it as the whole falls got moved forward as they had to be able to hook up the existing liner which got shortened slightly. I may have to cannibalize one of our existing paths to find the right stones needed. Always something.

Started putting the cages around the Paeonia today, but ran out of cages. I also started to bring out more plants from the greenhouse, but was more anxious to get things deadheaded and the final raking done up by the veggie bed. I took some shots of more SDBI that are now out but have two that I can't figure out. Two yellow ones. Help.

Garden is so dry that the tulips and narcissus are wilting. No rain even if they keep saying we are suppose to get showers. But because the endless stream is still pulled apart, I guess I should hope it doesn't come before we get that back together. Patti

there are so many SDB dwarfs that it is difficult to ID many from a photo. 2nd most number of registrations after the TBs.

I wish we would not discuss ticks. makes me feel I have them crawling all over.

Pfg. still blushing and wishing that I could visit Hidcote someday. Patti

Lucy, I keep a journal of all the ones that I have planted since 2006 and those two don't seem to match.

Pulled a deer tick off my neck yesterday, but it was just attaching so I don't think it is a problem. DH had one too a couple of days ago, but we have been moving brush and leaves so we were in a danger zone. Patti