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.

Just a little Tingle today :)

Cute little Tingle burst out on a very windy day, to sparkle in the sunshine! The others I think are holding their buds, anticipating a few frosty nights.

If you look closely you can see the leaves are all leaning one way.

My daughter gave me this sign for Chirstmas. I put it on the front door, but so far it's not working very well. Why don't people just follow directions?!!

My furkids were wishing they could go outside today. "pweeeeeeze? we're bein' cuuuuuuute"

Our resident stray kitty, Scratch, has a nice soft spot out of the wind, where he likes to nap during the day. I expect he'll be in his bed in the garage tonight.

First Blooms of 2012!

Jared is the first to pop up and bloom. There are many buds as I walk through the rows, I hope they can take the cold night this week w/o drooping. One year we had a few nights of frost, and I thought the buds were fine. But when they opened weeks later, the blooms would hang over! There was a weak spot in the stem from the frosty night I guess. Odd!

This purple with the blue beard is open. I have to figure out who it is as it popped up in a stray spot. (Happy & GoLucky like to play tricks on me!)

And look at all those buds on Tingle just waiting to burst out!

Head over to my webpage and get your orders in now! Quantities are being updated the next couple weeks, so if there is one you want that says sold out, check back later to see if it has been restocked.

Another warm day, and allergies.

I woke this morning with a soft cool breeze coming in the window and over my face. Would have been an ahhh moment if not for this horrid headache. The crazy warm temps have the allergies in fill swing. I stumbled downstairs for my Zyrtec and a cup of coffee. Still waiting for the headache to leave, it's a doozy.

I wanted to share this quote from the daily Mutts cartoon-

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.  - Margaret Atwood


I realized when I read that, there isn't that spring smell outside this year. Everything went strait to summer!

Can this be real?

The magnolia are blooming on March 20th, the lilacs are budding up and the daffodils aren't even finished yet!
The iris are growing inches each day. I hope this isn't too much too fast. I've never seen them grow like this.

As I shake my head and wonder what will happen this spring, I'll share my thoughts for the day.

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

The best way to garden is to put on a wide brimmed straw hat and some old clothes. And with a hoe in one hand and a cold drink in the other, tell somebody else where to dig. ( I WISH!)

Everybody up!

Well, it seems Mother Nature decided we needed to get outside and get busy busy busy RIGHT NOW!
Our temps are pushing 80 every day, so last Tuesday I spent 6 hours clearing the straw off the iris beds.  They are looking good, even though the winter was so warm, and I doubt they really got a good sleep. (I know I didn't...but that's another story)

  I'm a little sad that it's warm so early. I was really looking forward to a couple weeks at least in my new sewing room.  I'm going to have to squeeze lots of sewing in, I got my notice today that I've been accepted in the Fall Show in Elizabeth/Hanover. It's always a BIG deal, and I want to have tons of fun new things ready. (whoo-boy, where is my super energy drink? Digging, shipping, sewing, weeding, cutting for etsy.... )

Tonight I went out to check on the iris, and saw that they are growing at a speed of about an inch a day! Oh my, I hope we don't get a hard cold spell about the first of April! You hear that M.N.? No fools day jokes- Ok?!!

I'm going to get the preen on them this weekend , and try to do some general counting to update the website numbers. Orders are already coming in! There will be more choices when the actual count is up.
Lucky me, this year I have help with the webpage! :D :D :D  Happy Dance !

Waiting for Spring

This winter will be quite a test of the iris. I'm not sure what to expect. We had so many days of much warmer than normal temps, and little snowcover. I'm afraid they may be rotting under the straw. I hope not, but I'm prepared for that possibility.
You may notice that I've had my web designer post a banner on my webpage saying I'm not taking orders until May. It might be sooner, depending on when I get the Iris uncovered and see how they are doing. But in the meantime, I'd rather not take orders that I'm not sure I can fill.
This week we are supposed to get three days of almost 60 degrees. Normally this would signal me to uncover them. But it's too early (if it were a normal winter). What to do..what to do...what to do!!!

Check back for updates.
Deb

A garden is a thing of beauty and a job forever. 
quote / saying by Richard Briers

Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.  Anon

Garden thoughts...

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
Author unknown

Is it Winter??

Such a strange winter. Warm and not much snow. If not for the iris, I wouldn't complain! Not a fan of winter. I'd much rather live in a warm place year round. 
I do worry how the iris are doing under the straw with the warm temps and the ground not frozen. Are they sleeping, or are they rotting? eeeek! I guess all I can do is wait and see and hope for the best. 


I found this quote online-


I appreciate the misunderstanding
I have had with Nature over my perennial border.
I think it is a flower garden;
she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass,
and tries to correct the error.  
- Sara Stein