Looks like my kinda town!

Here in town we have to oldest Strawberry Fair, Parade and carnival.
Silverton has the bathtub races.

I enjoy going to them....

D

This stuff IS fun- one really absorbs the atmosphere of the town with this local stuff. Many small towns are not just places to live, but to interact with. Not that it doesn't happen in neighborhoods in big cities and everywhere else, but I do think the process is easier in a small town.

Of course, at the rate I am turning my yard into a flower bed, it is also easier to get a reputation in a small town - and that crazy iris & daylily lady kinda springs to mind! ~Jan

Well Jan, I am about 1 hour from you. You will just have to treck down here to Janesville and see the bloom this spring, provided that the weather doesn't do something wierd and mess it up. I should have some immortality to share, and will give you a chunk. Even if it's in bloom, If you plant it early enough sometimes you get a re-bloom that same fall. This crazy warm, then cold weather has caused some of my rhizomes that I planted last year, to heave up a bit out of the ground. Not making me happy.

Sometimes 'Immortality' takes a year to settle in. If it does that in your garden, don't give up on it. It will do well, honest.

I periodically drive through Janesville en route to other locations. Let me know when your bloom peaks, I would love to stop by and see them, thank you.

I placed as many rocks as I had available on all of my iris last year. Then I got desperate and placed pots with dirt on some of the others. Hoping I have no heaving, and am crossing my fingers ~Jan

Hi tveguy3 and Philljm: Welcome and nice to see some folks living closer to me. I have a sister in Lodi, Wisconsin and I am a little south of Chicago. New to cubits last year and having a wonderful time. Not enough hours in the day for me to keep researching. Love of iris and peonies are my passions. Garden arts and crafts. I have been busy trying to get a collection of iris for myself. I want to try learning how to polenate iris this year. Have a desire to dedicate an iris in my grand daughters name that past away last year. Determined to learn how to do this. Trying to get a collection of different ones to use for that purpose. Would definately be interested in any trades if you folks do that sort of thing. I garden on 1 acre which is my little piece of paradise. Good gardening and stay in touch. doglover

Doglover, I wish I knew you last summer, I divided about 40 varieties and hand many I threw out as I couldn't find homes for them. Tried to sell them on Craigs list at $2. each, and although I sold a lot, and gave many away, I still tossed out a lot of them. I am at a point where now I am getting mostly new introductions, as I have most of the older varieties that I want. Garden Art? Do you create it or collect it? I don't have a "showy" garden, i.e. lots of artsy stuff, lol, just lots of flowers. I'm not artistic enough to do that, but I enjoy the garden art. Last year they had lots of garden art at the "Art Fair on the Square", in Madison. I bought one piece, a humming bird at a lily cast in iron, with some brass. Kind of cute, I put it in a bed of flowers that I have around the grave of my Schnauser. I have been trying to polinate some iris too, either I get seed pods, and they don't germinate (except one seed I'm still waiting on to bloom), or like last year, I made about 20 crosses, and got two seed pods, one ended up with no viable seeds, and one, the stem rotted off before the seeds were mature. Ugh. Not looking to become a hybridizer or anything, just want to see if I can do it. Funny thing though, many years ago I bought a black Iris, it grew and bloomed for about 2 years, then died back, and came up again and bloomed deep purple. Well, I now know that it must have been a seedling of the original black (of which I don't know the name.) This purple iris has the most amazing fragrance, and such a strong fragrance, that you can smell it from a long distance. It's deep purple with a "whiteish" beard. I keep it just because of it's nice color, and good fragrance. It's a nicely shaped bloom too. But it was a total accident. lol.

Jan, I've heard of putting bricks on them to stop the heaving, but franckly I've never had this happen before. The roots are still in good though, so I guess I can just fill a bit of dirt around them. I'm in the middle of pruning fruit trees, and I am wondering if that's going to be a problem with these higher temps. I see my Maple trees leaf buds are swelling, gee, never had that happen in Feb. before. I will let you know when the bloom is going on. Tom

I use the 'rock on top' for late planted iris. With the temp fluxuation this winter, I expected lots of heaving. so far pretty good. Quite a few people had trouble doing crosses last summer. It rained the entire SDB season.

I use a rock on late planted rhizomes also. I didn't make any median crosses last year because of rain. Hope to make lots this spring. Also hope to use some of my own seedlings which will bloom for the first time in crosses if they are worthy.

Hello all,

I am pretty new to this forum, but have been on the daylily forum for awhile now. I actually started growing irises in 1985 after I went to the local iris show in a mall. I fell in love with them then and joined the Fort Worth Iris society. I belonged to the society many many years, but then got tired of going to meetings and just dropped out. But I still grow and love my irises. I grow tall beadeds and love medians. The medians love the cold so I have to be very selective in growing them. Many have bit the dust and gone to iris heaven. We usually have mild winters here.

I retired in 2001 and then had plenty of time for my garden BUT what people didn't tell me about retirement is, you are older and don't have the energy you once had when you started gardening. So now my iris beds are covered with weeds most of the year. My grown son who lives with me helps weed some, but I find that, if I weed in early spring and the garden looks good when they bloom, then it can be "let go" most of the year and I'm ok with that. Hey, it's better than no garden at all.

When I was still in the iris society, we had the annual convention in Fort Worth TX in 1993. A local hybridizer, Tom Burseen, had a big garden and we went there on the buses. We were walking in his seedling beds and I spied this one beautiful flower and my daughter and I just loved it. I ran and got Tom and said hey look at this, he had been busy and hadn't seen it yet. I said, "Hey Tom if you ever introduce this, name it after me ok?". And we went merrily on our way. A few years later at a meeting, he walked up to me and said "If you want me to name this for you, you have to sign this piece of paper giving me permission to use your name". I almost fell over, I had forgotten about it. Anyway, my name is Dorothy Parker and here is also Dorothy Parker.

Nice to see all of you here and I love all the beautiful pictures that everyone is posting.

Dot

Dorothy Parker in 2011


and it 2010, it usually looks more like this picture.

My early daffs are the only thing blooming here but at least it is a lovely , sunny and mild day that really feels like spring. Here are some pictures taken today.

What a treat.Nothing here ,just peeking out of the ground.

Hiya DogLover! I actually volunteer at the cat and hog show at the Lodi Ag Fair every year! Used to live in Poynette (right near Lodi) a lifetime ago. Small world, isn't it?

I doubt if I will have any iris to share this year, but remind me next year, I am hoping for great things I love to share when I have stuff available.

Haven't tried making seeds from iris yet, perhaps in the future. Haven't tried growing them from seed either - although I have had good results with daylily seeds.

The first winter I had iris - I had ordered them from Schreiners and even though they were planted in mid summer - I lost their bonus due to heaving. Believe it or not, Schreiners replaced that bonus for me! Wow! So now, no matter when I plant my iris first year I rock them, and mulch them. Hard to tell if it's helped - I haven't had any more heaving but the last few winters were cold with good snow cover which I suspect kept heaving to a minimum. I expect things to be different this year, since we have had a lot of freeze thaw cycles. I will let you know what happens in the spring.

Dot, that Dorothy Parker is BEAUTIFUL! And Rita, love your daff photos. ~Jan

Jan, I love to buy from Schreiners as I always get beautiful really big, big rhizomes that alwalys thrive for me. Plus I love that I can choose my own bonus plants and on top of that they always send even more bonus plants. I love my Schreiners Iris.

Dorothy Parker is a beaut!!!

funny Dot. I have seen your namesake. I don't grow it though. We grow mostly medians. Rejoin iris society please. We need you.

Dot, what a wonderful honor, and what a beautiful iris!

Tveguy: Sorry I missed out on last year. Just keep me in mind. I am not at the stage where I only collect new introductions. Soooo many beautiful iris, just buy the ones I think are pretty or have been suggested to use for crossing. I too am not doing this to be a hybridizer, just want to learn how to do this and especially try to come up with my own special one for my grand duaghters memory. I have not bought iris from Hornbakers. Glad to hear some feedback on them. I have been to their gardens and bought several hostas. beautiful place to roam around and look at their display gardens.

I have tried to check out the website. It is not open for 2012 yet. Just browsed thru their iris. I create garden art for myself and buy whatever I see fancies me. I use old tree stumps in many areas for adding hardscape and not worried about them breaking down. Great for my black top soil. My woodland native area is always looking for more decomposing bark. I'll bet that accident (iris) you talk about is still georgeous and I can smell it now. I do not have many iris that actually smell.Stay in touch. Thanks for getting back in touch. doglover

jan (philljm) My sister has lived in Lodi for about 40 years. She is not a gardener though. Love trading with you sometime in the future when you are ready. I have never tried crossing daylilies. Hope it turns out for you. Will also try to cross peonies perhaps this year or next. I have around 140 different varieties of peonies. Would love to come out with my own for my grand daughter garden in her behalf. I do not use rocks on any of my plants, just walk around and try to step the earth back around them. Frustrating to loose plants from winter damage though. Good luck with your gardening and nice chatting.doglover

great site!!!!