Link to blog with Good information on Borers

Information on borers and a good picture of early damage/detection. You can also just squeeze down the length of the leaves below where you see the "notch" and you will learn to recognize the familiar POP when you get the borer! Gross but effective! And no chemicals.
Borers, Bees and Insecticides

More blooms, frost and a SECRET CODE!

I sent out emails today offering 10% off iris orders on my website  http://sunshineannie.com/ , or in my etsy store  http://www.etsy.com/shop/SunshineAnnieDieCuts?ref=si_shop 
Check the pictures in my blog and see if you can find the little Iris Pox Bug, he keeps the codes!



We had frost again last night, so there is evidence of some trouble in the buds. I took a couple pics of the worst I saw. You can see the discoloration where the moisture must have frozen.  All I can do now is wait and see what happens. 

I also discovered a bunny nest in progress. I do like it when they make a nest in the straw. Little bunnies are so darn cute! But this one had to go. Luckily it didn't have babies yet, not even fur lining. So it was ok to take it out and put the dirt back in. The one iris bud is drooping from the disturbance in it's roots.  I feel bad, momma bunny must have thought the flowers would be a nice place for her babies. Hopefully she'll make a new nest in the straw nearby.

Out across the gardens there aren't many blooms yet. I think if the temps would stay in the 70s they would just explode within a couple days.  The first pic is the group of Double Your Fun. This one is ALWAYS packed with blooms, and for quite a long time. And then, it blooms again in the fall! (unless it freezes hard  real early here).

(like the "wild flowers"? oh well, they will be gone soon)

Here are a few pretties from today....

Oops, blurry. But MORE 4-falls iris! I've never seen so many in all my years, much less all in one year!!

Hot Wheels

One I've lost the name of and HAVE to figure out ASAP!

Oklahoma Bandit. Gorgeous group.

Pathway

And little Puddy Tat   so cute!

Hope you enjoyed the tour today. I didn't even check on the tadpoles. It was cold and windy out there and I just wanted to get back inside!

Progress is slow

Today's weather was wonderful. Now if it will just stay!  Calling for more freezing weather this weekend. The frost damage is starting to show in the buds and blooms. Here is a good shot of freeze damage to a bud. The one on the far right, and the far left won't open. :(

This one has opened but you can see it's not a good bloom. 

There are some areas that the entire group of buds are brown. Mostly the dwarf/early ones. I may just clip them off to save the plant the trouble of trying to bloom.
I hope we don't get more freezing nights. The buds are stretching up quickly now, more every day.

Another thing that is getting bigger every day are the tadpoles! They grow pretty slowly really for something that I would think would have a lot of  things looking to munch on them.
They gather in the shallow waters and soak up the sun. I noticed today they were either playing or fighting over a good spot.

The flies were grouping up too, what ever that was about. They were very annoying today. They seem to enjoy munching on ME :(

I was taking some pics for a contest, here are a couple of my first shots. Gnarly aren't they?

Our Mockingbird is back!

I heard the prettiest jabber from outside the window, and suddenly realized it was the Mockingbird! If you've never heard one, they carry on in short bits of every other bird song and sometimes odd sounds they hear a lot. It always makes me smile, such a happy jabber. And it makes the blackbirds mad for some reason, and that is funny too.
 I snapped a couple pics before scaring it. ....Ooops.
I hope to get some video with sound this summer. They are very pretty, almost the color of a deer.

Maybe they make me laugh because they talk to themselves too! I catch myself doing that in the yard. I always look to see if anyone heard me. Oh my!

Time for the ribbons!

The buds are getting taller, and that means it's time to put in the reflective ribbons. The robins and blackbirds seem to think that Iris buds are quite nice perches. Except that they break off when they sit on them.  So every year I get my pile of bamboo stakes tied with reflective ribbons and stick them all over the iris beds. I don't really like the way it looks. I'd rather have just the iris buds and blooms. But without the ribbons there would me many less buds. Already I found broken stems from the fat birds!
 If you look closely you can see them. You can buy reflective ribbon from garden centers and online etc, but I found some curling ribbon  in the clearance at WalMart! It had the reflective design and it works too. Doesn't last quite as long and isn't as wide, and maybe isn't as flashy if you have stubborn birds, but it seems to be working for me.  I've also used old CD's on top of my wire plant stakes. The ones that have a circle at the top to hold the plant. If you slide the CD up from the bottom until you get to the bend at the top,  you can keep it from sliding back off with a clothespin.

A couple new bloomers today with the sun and warmer temps. But what I'm seeing mostly is the stems stretching up more quickly. In another week I think there will be blooms all over.

Here is the first of my Intermediate Iris to bloom, Season Ticket. Look Closely! All of them have FOUR FALLS!  Four pretty bright beards on each. I just love those dark beards on the bright golden yellow.

 In the pic above you can see the group is all alone right now!

That's about it, I'm feeling very lazy today.  We did a bit of yard work but came in early and have been wasting time on our computers. Need to stop that!   Dave did stop on the way out to give our stray kitty Scratch some lovin. And he does love it!

Blooming in the cold!

The poor iris don't know what to make of this weather. 80s in March, and now 30's -50's in April.
A few more braved the cold today and will probably be wilted blooms in the morning as we are supposed to get frost again.
Hagar's Helmet has funky long horn forks

My granddaughter Zoe's favorite, Pippi Longstocking is going all out cold weather or not!

Cimmaron Rose is an unusual color that is hard to get a great picture of. Especially this year! She just doesn't want to open up for me.

These are pics of Rare Edition. A real sparkler in the early blooms.

That's all I know today, I went to town and got carried away at JoAnns (not hard for me to do), then got groceries. I don't enjoy getting groceries. And we still had cereal for supper!

Happy Blooms!

Sunshine and Iris pox! ?

Beautiful sunny day, finally! Not many new buds open but tons of them stretching up towards the sky. We had cold temps again last night, so the blooms that were open are all droopy and sad. Hopefully that's the end of it. *crossing fingers!  I saw a stem today with bumps, goosebumps?!! Has to be from the frosty nights. It's hanging on though.

Unfortunately since we have had lots of cold and damp weather, the Iris pox are back. >:(
I do not like them. They make me mad! I ran to the greenhouse and wielded my scissors like Edward scissor-hands! Off with your spotted leaves!

*sigh
 I sprayed them with fungicide two weeks ago, and normally would spray again 2 to 3 times before they bloomed. It seems to be holding fairly well, but I'd really like to get them sprayed again to keep the new leaves clear. (If it would just get nice and warm and mostly dry, no problem!)
BUT! I found out a few years ago that if I spray the buds, the flowers are all messed up when they try to open, IF they open at all then. Many did not. :(
And that's no fun! So.... to-do or not-to-do....???? oh boy. Guess I'll keep trimming off the pox , and if I see any are getting worse I'll just have to sacrifice some flowers.  I'm trimming off the worst and tossing them in the burn pile. (DON'T put them in your compost pile.BURN them to kill the fungus!)

Ok, so it's APRIL right? Well, somebody better tell the JUNE bugs that are coming out! Crazy crazy year!

The tadpoles are very happy today. I got some better pics of them lounging in the shallow water.

I'm wishing these guys were ahead of schedule to catch the flies that are biting me!

Wind, cold and no ambition?

Why is it, when it's cold and icky outside, and I have the perfect excuse to play in my sewing room, that I'm feeling totally uninspired to do anything? I always think, "Ahh today is perfect, I can play!" But I just want to nap, or cuddle in a blanket and zone out.

I guess that's why my nickname was Sunshine. I was my best when the sun was shining!

Then again, this bronchitis might be the culprit. Two weeks and it's just starting to let up. I finally don't sound like my dad!
So today is one of those days, and I'm not getting much accomplished. So, I'll share what I did YESTERDAY! :p

Only one new bloomer yesterday, Tide Pool made an appearance in the drizzle.

This crazy spring has brought us a new experience.Remember a few weeks ago the loud toads in the pool? Well, now we have thousands of tadpoles on our pool cover! I noticed them yesterday. The more I looked, the more I saw! Oh my. (It was hard to get a picture with the glare, but here is a tiny sample)

Now , I like having toads to eat the slugs and stuff. But this would be THOUSANDS of toads!  Problem is, they won't be getting their legs any time soon, and we will be taking off the pool cover in a few weeks. Sooo..... what to do, what to do.  I'm thinking I might scoop as many as I can into a bucket, and take the bucket to the creek. I wonder if that would be too much of a shock, the colder water. Hmmm, then I suppose the raccoons will thin them out some. They seem to at least have to get hold of everything and destroy it, if not eat it. And I read on the net that the blackbirds/grackles like to eat the tadpoles, and we sure have plenty of those.
Any ideas? I thought maybe the kids at school would like to watch the tadpoles. But I'm not sure they would be "done" by the time school got out near the end of May.

Our lilacs are blooming still, and the scent is especially wonderful and strong. I love to be standing in the yard and suddenly have my head filled with Lilac aroma. Ahhhhhhh  :)

Don't you just want to jump in the middle and breathe in as deep as you can!

Oh, remember the pretty Magnolia a couple weeks ago? Well, it's not very pretty now. The blossoms had dropped and the leaves were growing. Now they are all brown. Frozen.  It looks horrible. My dark magnolia was still blooming, and it looks really bad. I didn't take pictures. Not pretty!

And so it begins....

And so it begins, the Iris are blooming very early, and my summer is 100% spoken for. I printed out my new location charts, marked those that need new pics and I'm out the door..


I've decided to get a sign for the yard, a name for our place.
It will be called  NeverDone  *sigh


Anyone want to paint it for me?

Still waiting for a correct answer to my photo question.

No correct guesses yet to yesterday's photo!

Last night wasn't quite as cold, but today my magnolia bush is all wilted. And the trumpet vine looks pretty sad too. What a cruel trick to play on such a pretty bush.

Freeze + Iris blooms = not pretty :(

We had below freezing last night for 7 hours, and my blooms were not pretty this morning. Sad looking Tingle, yesterday was so cheerful.

Luckily there are only a few others with long bud stems. I can see when I look closely that they have some freeze damage.See the light and dark areas? The light areas have tiny bubbles under the outer layer. I'm guessing that's where the water/sap froze last night. Time will tell if it was bad enough to ruin that stem.

This one was tall and straight yesterday. I'm not sure if the wind or the cold caused the curve.

This was an interesting discovery. Several nibbled off buds. I never have nibbling problems with the iris. Only one time did a deer try to eat one. And in that case it pulled out the entire root and dropped it a few feet away. (yea, thanks a lot!) I'm guessing this might have been the black birds. They like to try to take off with strings I put around clumps too.

  Tonight is supposed to be the same. Low of 26. I don't know if covering my house plants on the deck is good enough. They are either going to be really tough, or really tough looking! I hope this is the end of the hard freezes, the plants must be so confused. I guess Mother Nature is not through her menopause yet!

Here is a question of the day. The first person who gives me the correct answer gets free shipping on their order this year!
What is wrong with this picture? Email me at noll7@yahoo.com with your answer.