Happy birthday, Polly

It's such a pleasure to wish you a very happy birthday and a year filled with all that makes you smile.

Happy birthday, Polly. I hope this year brings you great success in your gardening for business and for pleasure and the energy to keep the vast expanses of your property under control.

Hi , Polly! Happy Birthday with all the best bloomin' wishes!

Happy birthday, Polly. I am sipping my morning coffee, wishing I had a piece of your BD cake to go w/ it.

Happy Birthday Polly

Happy Birthday Polly!!

Happy Birthday Polly !
Here's a color harmony for you. Enjoy your day !

Happy Birthday Polly! Hope you have a year of sun, just enough rain and no weeds.

A lily luncheon happy birthday to polly.

http://web.mac.com/traceynelson/iWeb/Tracey%20Nelson/Lilies%20One.html

Hope you have a good one. Here's to an early spring!

Happy Birthday Polly! I'm sending a bunch of good wishes for your business to take off for you this year and for your beautiful gardens :) Sorry it's a late wish, no internet for the last few days, hope you aren't snowed in like I am for your birthday lol

Oh my gosh. I can't believe I missed this. I never expected birthday greetings on this forum. I so apologize.

Thank you everyone for all the good wishes, and the beautiful pictures.

Arlene and Zuzu, beautiful irises. Thank you so much!

Mamasita, I'm not good with houseplants, so forgive me if that's not an orchid. Gorgeous orchid!

Thanks Vossner, I nixed birthday cake this year, but did splurge the diet on some fantastic onion rings.

Jo Ann, thanks for that daylily. It really brightened up my day!

arejay, thank you for the lily, love that one!

Beautiful color harmony Mike! Thank you so much!

Love that clematis, Louise. Much appreciated!

Magnolialover, I will need some alone time to see all that site, wow.

Cyndie, thank you for the nice wishes.

Lea, you stinker, where have you been? No, since my birthday not much snow, but it's been cold.

How funny that you missed this thread, Polly. We all know you're in this forum every single day. It seemed like the logical place to wish you a happy birthday. Anyway, happy birthday again. It's so nice to know you're not an ungrateful wretch. LOL.

Birthdays should be celebrated as long as we want them to so keep on enjoying your thread, Polly.

she's right...they've been celebrating one birthday in the NE Forum for about a year and a half !

Too funny Zuzu, ungrateful wretch indeed!

Even though I'm in the forum everyday, it's only because I had certain threads on my threadwatcher, so i would actually just go to those threads, and not the forum itself. lesson learned.

Thanks again, all!

A year and a half, huh? We can top that.

Happy birthday, Polly. Here's another cool PCH iris. I'm addicted to these.

That is so beautiful!

Oh, Polly, I am so sorry I missed this date.....
I promise I will not send you a photo of ice, so....

How about a little chocolate.
Akebia

Oh those Pacific Coast irises are gorgeous! I sure wish we could grow them here.

Thanks Sharon. No, no ice please. Chocolate is good. Real or akebia. I received some great real chocolate for my birthday, and now I think I will have a piece as I look at the pretty akebia vine.

They'll be in bloom soon, so I'll have loads of PCH iris pictures to show you. I have some that are nothing short of awe-inspiring, but they didn't make the grade and didn't even get names. The competition is really fierce. I don't hybridize them myself, but I have friends who do.

Please do show the pictures Zuzu, I would love to see them. I have read about them, and have seen pictures of a few. I did understand there was some breeding going on in them, but don't know who is doing it. Maybe Superstition in California, or Keith Keppel and Joe Ghio?

I have a beautiful book, Irises by Claire Austin, and she has a section with pictures of the PCIs, and they are fascinating, so delicate looking.

Maybe someone will breed them for hardiness. That would be a wonderful thing. Until then I'll live vicariously through your pics.

That's a really nice Iris Zuzu. In the photo it looks like it's sprinkled with diamond dust. Does it have that appearance in person also?

Yes, it does, Louise, and that's such a good description.

Another reason to fly west!

I'll do my best to keep those reasons coming, with the invaluable assistance and photographic support of Sue, JD, and Steph.

Sharon - thank you for posting a photo of the Akebia. I planted one last year and hope mine looks as good as yours. It's already up to the top of the trellis where I planted it but it isn't full yet - maybe this year it will expand.

Polly - why can't we grow those beautiful PCH irises?

Zuzu - please post more photos of them. They could be my next love if they can be grown here.

Pirl, I don't think they are hardy here. All the info I have shows maximum hardiness of 10, but freezing temps not recommended. However, I do know Irisloverdee is growing them in Oregon. If you could get a piece it would be worth a try for you, I don't think so for me.

Rats!

Pirl,
The akebia grows like nothing else for me. At the moment, and before the storm, it had toppled its trellis.....again. I will go out, pick it up, cut it back, and by spring I'll be trying to prop up the trellis again, even though it is a foot or more in the ground. I have thought of setting it in concrete, but keep thinking, too, that I might change the location of the akebia. Mind changing, I do that well and often. I love to walk past and inhale in the spring and early summer. A nice no calorie chocolate fix.

Polly and Zu now have me on an iris kick. If I can ever get out from under the lincoln logs all over my yard, I will have a new iris bed.

Thanks for the information, Sharon. Maybe I should get a stronger trellis.

Which family of irises interest you the most?

Pirl,
I don't even know how to answer that. I have always had bearded iris, then when I was in Alaska last summer became fascinated with those that grow wild there, they were called wild siberian. Then when looking for a red iris, I talked with Polly, and she introduced me to her beardless ones......so now, here I am, wanting everything I see and can find. I want all of Polly's, all of yours, and the one that Zuzu showed.

I will scour the local nurseries, I have a couple of favorites here, and when I check them out, maybe I will have a start of something new and different, at least for me.

I have 3 fairly large iris beds...well no longer beds because they run into each other...and until the lady on the hill behind me decided to drain her pool into my yard, all was well and wonderful.

I will have to wait and see what happens next, but to answer your question, all of them. Or better, I don't know.

Ensata Gardens 2009 catalog should be online very soon. That can use up some time!

I keep checking to see where it is. Aitkens is supposed to be up in March. I really can't remember when Ensata does theirs.

I thought someone mentioned it on an iris thread.

Polly, Joe Ghio certainly does come out with some beauties, but the people I know who are doing it are just amateurs I met through the Native Plant Society. They sell their "failures" at a big sale each year, and they're all breathtakingly beautiful. I bought some at the last sale sight unseen because they had "pumpkin," "brown sugar," and "creme brulee" in their names. They sounded so pretty. Or maybe I was just hungry that day....

Are there any other irises they hybridize?

I can't wait to see the pictures, Zuzu.

yes...pictures, please !

Patience! They have to bloom first.