What's blooming in April

For the past year I have been unable to do much in my yard. It's pretty much gone "well, you know the expression" in a hand basket ,in my opinion. This year I am beginning to try to reestablish some degree of order. I have had blossoms of some kind in the garden since February when the daffodil started blooming here, but this past week these iris convinced me all is not lost. The ones in the foreground are a supposed "mix of many colors" I ordered the first year I began working iris (there were exactly 3 different ones in case you wondered)--I was peeved to say the least. Across the back are about 15 different varieties I plan to move to my garden after they finish blooming.

Lovely irises! Stono, I'd love to do that around my pond, but I'm afraid the sheep would snarf them all up.

Gessie- pretty! I keep thinking I'm going to plant bearded iris, but I felt like as a child my mom always had us digging them up and dividing them.

Dear bordersandjacks...If the sheep would snarf them all up, can I rent me some sheep? Deer won't touch 'em... Nothing will...

Louisiana Iris free for all to dig??? Think a local nursery might send someone to dig them up to sell??

Of course the whole thing might just start again next year.

Which of course it would, Core... I've tried spraying them with aquatic weed killer...they laugh as it rolls off them... Nothing short of burning them would seem to workl...

Tried burning the marsh grass we get around our lagoon and it simply said thank you growing better than it has ever grown before. Our new scheme is grass eating carp. I hope the person in charge of this realizes the bass are good size and those carp better be pretty big when they stock them.

Green solution for sure, will it work? We will see.

CoreHHI- I just went to a pond clinic. (1) You need to make sure grass carp will eat what you want, they don't eat everything and (2) you're right about the size. You need to buy grass carp that are at least 12" and in the density recommended for your pond or you're wasting $$$.

There are 2 HUGE grass carp in the pond across the road from us. I never see any of the plants disappearing and diminish, so it might take alot of 'em!

When I was a kid, "they" would burn the marsh grass every year but it always came back bigger and better than before. My dad used to tell me they did it to get rid of rats. Ewwww.

Yep, and the things that eat rats.... like snakes. Ick, ick, ick.

The pond clinic I went to was very interesting. However, after learning all the things I'm doing wrong (or not doing) I'm surprised how good our pond actually looks!

Our pond is something like 13 acres and about 30 ft deep. It shared by 9 houses so we keep a good watch over what's going on. Check the water quality once in a while etc. Only problem we have is that marsh grass, I can't remember the actual name of it right now but one of neighbors is taking care of all this. We've been having the grass sprayed which knocks it back but doesn't kill it. We would prefer not to have to spray and we really don't want to pay for spraying. The stuff is a real pain get rid of by hand and what I don't like is the snakes that hang out in it. A couple of years ago I was weed eating the bank and grass while keeping an eye out for alligators since a good size one had been spotted off and on for a month. At the same time I have to pay attention to snakes in the grass. Giant bull frog jumped out and bounced of my chest, oh was I moving quickly to get out of there. Never saw him coming. Have to have your wits about you if you're going to play around where that stuff grows.

Here's a picture of the "grass" if left to grow. Won't grow in the shade and it won't grow out into the deeper water. It will take over shallow full sun spots. You got me thinking of how do we figure out how many carp would keep the grass under control. Hopefuly someone has the answer to that. Looks like I'll have call a street meeting this weekend. We're not very formal about these things.

Roses are popping out.

In person this rose really pops out at you. The color is very vivid.

I'd let that grass grow, Core...it's gorgeous! Really great "Natural" look (which I personally like). I have sterile carp in my pond. Put 3 12'' carp in about15 years ago (small pond, maybe 1/2-3/4 acre). Pond weeds have never been a problem since. I thought we only had one carp left after a couple of years (didn't think there was enough food to sustain all 3 of them). But now I think more than one of them are still in there, because an American Bald Eagle harvested one a couple of weeks ago, and its skeleton measured 28". Guess there was enough food for them! And there's at least one still extant in the pond, because he/she/it scared the bejeezes out of me just this morning (they like to do that!). They "fin" in the shallows, and if your shadow crosses them, they "explode" outta there much like an alligator. I've also seen him/her/it cruising the surface---looks to be a good 3' in length. They won't touch dollar weed, though...Which will grow in an aquatic environment... I'm convinced that stuff would grow on the sun and the moon at the same time...

oh dear on those irises. I'd love some LA irises. but those look more like bog iris, and once established, they will clog waterways. in some states, it's legal to bring them into the state they are so invasive along rivers and streams. not an LA iris at all, but the species water iris.

My Knockout Rose and The President Clematis bloomed around mid-April.

I'm new to posting and uploading here. Only one photo at a time I guess. Here's the President Clematis.

StonoRiver- sorry, I agree with bonjon on the yellow iris. They are considered an invasive nuisance.

I see at least four of us from NC on here, some of us are pretty close too.

Rebloomer, that's a beauty of clematis. Nice shot of it, too. :)

One more NC gardener here!

Rebloomer-right around the corner from you:)
Bev