Showing posts with label Iris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iris. Show all posts

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I LOVE SPRING!!!!!


Radtko


The garden is just crazy pretty right now and probably not even one third of the growth is even out of the ground good. The cleanup is about 98% complete and the garden would be looking perfect now except my grass guy had to work and wasn’t able to come cut it this weekend. I worked in the garden for about four hours Saturday and got a really good jump on all the detailed cleaning. I also got all the shrubs shaped up, except for the front yard flower beds. Actually, I’m considering removing them and redoing them with new shrubs. The next step is to get the spring weeds under control. I know if I wait long enough the heat will kill them, but if I get them first the grass will have a better chance and they won’t sap up all the vitamins and good stuff in the ground. The grass can use it instead. I was walking around looking at the irises and I seem to be missing a lot of tags. Either they are buried in mulch or they were taken by an evil tag troll. So I’ve got to figure out the name of some of these plants. Last year the iris borers really did a number on the tall beardeds and several were lost. Know what that means? Time to buy more! Have a good week and God Bless~ Randy

DSC02869C



'Sultan's Palace'

Sultans Palace



DSC02874C



'Invitation'

Invitation



'Hello Darkness'

Hello Darkness



'Crepuscule and Old Fashioned Cabbage'

CrepusculeandCabbage

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Just a Few Flowers


Hello everyone! We are in need of some serious rain here in Prattville. The grass is brown and crunch and the plants look haggard. We have a very effective drip system that waters the beds, but nothing can replace God’s water. Plants always look so much more vibrant after a good rain. Someone once told me rainwater is rich in nitrogen, is that true?

Anyway, I’ve been short for time here lately so I’m a little behind on my blog reading. I usually take my lunch at my desk at work and do my reading then, but the head of the IT department has told everyone no more internet usage. Sooooooo, that’s an hour of the day I don’t get to catch up on my blog reading. Which really sucks. I guess I just have to do what I can on the weekends because there is simply very little time during the week.

Here are a few pictures from the garden. I hope everyone has/had a great Memorial Day.


'Tequila Sunrise'

Tequila Sunrise


Variegated Iris

Variegated Iris


'Becky'

Shasta Daisy


'Double River Wye'

Double River Wye


'Darius'

Darius


'Daring Deception'

Daring Deception


Unknown

Unknown


'Raspberry Pixie'

Rasberry Pixie


'Chorus Line'

Chorus Line


'Catalina'

Catalina

Monday, May 3, 2010

Irises 05/03/10


One of my very favorite things about spring time is watching all the Irises bloom. Each day can hold a new surprise for me when I walk out the door in the morning. Jamie and I are constantly adding to our Iris collection. Here are a few that are blooming in the garden right now.

‘Blueberry Bliss’


Blueberry Bliss


‘Owen’s Yellow’

Owen's Yellow


‘Contraband Girl’

Contraband Girl


This is a beautiful unknown iris that was sent to us by a friend in Michigan. If you think you know the name feel free to shoot us a note.

Polly's


‘Caesar’s Brother’ was a gift from Phillip’s garden. I really want to increase the Siberians and Japanese Irises on our garden.

Caesar's Brother


‘Champagne Waltz’

Champagne Waltz


‘ Not Good Show’ Turns out this is Sentimental Rose- It was marked wrong at the plant show.

Good Show


Marilyn from Wheelchair Gardener sent me a picture of this Iris over a year ago. When we saw it, we thought it was the prettiest thing we had ever seen. Jamie ordered it online as a gift for me and this is the first bloom it’s produced for us. It’s called ‘Starship Enterprise’.

Starship Enterprise


‘Slavok Prince’

Slovak Prince


‘War Chief’

War Chief


‘Spartan’

Spartan


‘Avalon Sunset’

Avalon Sunset


I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Iris ‘Megabucks’ is next on my wish list. Who knows, maybe I’ll order it today!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Blooming In Our Garden 04/19/10


Dorothy Frances Gurney
1858 - 1932


Wise Words


I’m so very happy things are starting to grow and bloom in the garden. Nothing makes me feel more alive than to walking among so many beautiful bright colors. In our garden we don’t really tend to have much of a color scheme going on. As a matter of fact, for the most part it looks like a kaleidoscope threw up in it, but Jamie and I like it that way. While we don’t try to place “complementary colors” beside each other we are learning the importance of large patches of color for impact and we are working on that.

Lutea


Jamie and I are very fond of Irises and they tend to steal the show when they start blooming in the spring. We currently have 55 different irises, 35 of which are bearded. We know the names of all them with the exception of 2 or 3. When Jamie and I first started the garden we cataloged every single plant that went into it and have continued to do it to this day. The original reason we did it was to make certain we didn’t buy the same daylily twice. Now, I’m glad we did because it’s a handy reference list when I can’t remember the name of something.

Some of the irises are looking a little poorly this year and I’m not certain why. Maybe it was the cold winter or maybe they have some type of bug. I’ll have to do some research and see what I come up with as the answer. Here are a few that are blooming this week.


'Clarence'

Clarence


'Beverly Sills'

Beverly Sills


'In Your Dreams'

In Your Dreams


'Invitaion'

Invitation


'Sugar Blues'

Sugar Blues


This is an Unknown that came from an online friend.

Polly's Blue


'Canned Heat'

Canned Heat


'Point In Time'

Point in Time


Now this particular iris is not one from our garden. Our friend Carol was up for the weekend and we went to visit Jasmine Hill Garden to see the spring flowers. If any of you know what it is I would positively love to know the name? Better yet, if you happen to have it I would love even better to have a fan or two! No, I’m not too proud to ask or too shy for that matter. If you have it, I’m certain we could do some horse trading.:-)

Jasmine Hill Unknown


Okay, so now I have another question for you. When is a rose not a rose? Give up? When it’s an azalea! In February of 2008 Jan at Always Growing did a post on this plant and Jamie and I both just fell in love with it. I love Jan’s blog, she has a knack for finding the most interesting plants and we have several in our garden that are there because we saw them on her blog. If you’ve never been to her blog pop in and tell her hello. Without that post neither we nor our friend Carol would have this beautiful plant in our garden.

'Amelia Rose'

Amelia Rose


Isn’t it just gorgeous? We bought a second one that we are training to grow into a tree. It’ will take a few years but it’ll get there eventually.

Amelia Rose 2


I’ll leave you with this picture of ‘Trouper Orange’. I hope this post finds you well, happy and loving every minute you spend in the garden.

Trouper Orange

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Hello Yellow


Daffodils


Is it just me or does yellow seem to be a very dominant color in spring? The color Yellow symbolizes renewal and hope so it’s only appropriate that it be a leading color in spring. In Elizabethan England, by law only the wealthy were permitted to wear this color. Holistic healers believe yellow is the color of peace. Studies in psychology suggest it increases concentration, that’s why legal pads are yellow. It also speeds up metabolism. The list goes on and on… I also read yellow is the most difficult color for the eye to process so it can overpower other colors if overused. Everywhere I look the garden seems to be filled with yellow.

Forsythia


Here are the same old yellow irises you guys see in spring of every year. These guys seem to bloom forever in our garden. They sporadically produce flowers until fall.

Yellow Iris


This tattered ‘King Alfred’ daffodil caught my attention for some reason. It’s still holding its color despite the wind beating it relentlessly against the rock behind it. I felt such diligence should be rewarded with a photo.

King Alfred


The weather was just perfect outside yesterday. Our new baby, Maxx was enjoying the spring day too. He seemed to be particularly interested in the scent of the ‘Ice Follies’ daffodils. This photo was a complete accident. I was actually taking a picture of the yellow iris when he decided to take a sniff of the daffodil.

Maxx


Maxx can sniff the daffs all he wants I prefer the scent of the jasmine.

Carolina Jasmine


Is yellow a dominant color in your garden? I love it, yellow can bring sunshine to your garden even on a cloudy day.

Ice Follies