Beautiful, Jan! And awesome suggestion, Bonnie!

Today, I sold 6 Indian Chief and dug in mud getting them. Picture is from last spring.

Jan, your crosses look beautiful! For the sorrell, try snipping it with scissors at the base. Eventually it will not have enough photosynthesis to support the roots and they will die.

Checked everything after downpour yesterday. Got around 0.6" in total, much needed. Wind is gusting to 20 or a bit higher. The 3 rebloomers still going strong with Bountiful Harvest going gangbusters. Here is one of the clumps still showing lots of buds so hope frosts don't do them in too early:

Thanks, Bonnie!

Great suggestion on props for the pots. our back porch is not large enough for pots. Our rain (with thunder) was 2 .25 inches last night with another quarter added this afternoon. The leaves are falling in large batches now because of the wind. We have rather sharp drainage so don't often have puddles.

Jan, I am having to use my cell phone and cant get photos to this site but one of my favorite flower pot stands is made with rebar. A round circle of rebar that is very level and lets the pot sit at least 1/3 the way into it has two 'legs' made of rebar in any height you want. At the bottom of the rebar legs are chicken feet. Three long toes in front and one longer one in back on each leg and they are very sturdy. I have five of them and I arrange them to look like chickens are carrying pots of flowers in a row.

I wish you could get a picture, Bonnie!

Finished planting the back garden. So many iris still in pots. Really fantastic iris still in pots.

I planted a few that had been in pots since last fall. They had been sitting out around the raised tree ring. Well, little tree rootlets had filled the bottoms of the pots. It was a bear getting the iris out of the pots! Teaches me not to let them sit so long. Also means I will have to pull everything out of the tree ring next summer, remove the tree rootlets and replant.

Beautiful garden Jan. I can imagine how beautiful the row of irises in front of the tall trees would look in the spring.

janwax said:I took some photos of what we did yesterday.
I'm envious of some of you with your very neat beds, sometimes wood-lined. We're just
tucking iris into available carved-out spaces. We've cut back into a big long-lived herb mound, with just a quarter of that devoted now to thyme, oregano, etc. As I mentioned recently, we've discovered sorrel invading one of the beds. Because of the long roots, we will probably have to dig up the entire bed, remove the sorrel, and re-plant the iris.
We also "lined-out" one of the crosses that was much bigger than other crosses made at the same time. I haven't given them a "hair-cut" and wonder if I should. To me they're so beautiful. We also need to do a lot to our funky, 30 year old country house. So much to do!
The hose coming down from the upper deck is connected to a rain barrel that also gets warmup water
from our shower. Every drop counts during the drought!












sorrel invasion


my first seedling cross






...and one more. Deck, pots, cat!

I was looking with envy on all the room you have for iris, then thought - interesting blue garden sculpture. You being artistic and all. Then I really looked and realized it is an upside down wheelbarrow.

Lestv said:Finished planting the back garden. So many iris still in pots. Really fantastic iris still in pots.

I planted a few that had been in pots since last fall. They had been sitting out around the raised tree ring. Well, little tree rootlets had filled the bottoms of the pots. It was a bear getting the iris out of the pots! Teaches me not to let them sit so long. Also means I will have to pull everything out of the tree ring next summer, remove the tree rootlets and replant.

Is this a ring of dwarfs Leslie? I can help with excess overflow.

Lestv said:


I was looking with envy on all the room you have for iris, then thought - interesting blue garden sculpture. You being artistic and all. Then I really looked and realized it is an upside down wheelbarrow.

Leslie, we have lots of room,,but not the energy to tame it! It's a clearing in a forest.

Dave - um, thanks for all the sorrel recipes !

Sorry to hear Jan. What fun could be had.

Bonnie - not my dwarf ring but I have plenty to send you my friend!

Leslie, since I'm going to be 80 in a few weeks, "fun" has various meanings - but digging beds isn't one of them !

Too wet, I am happy to say.

I'm so far behind on the forums that I'm not even going to try to catch up. Prayers and best wishes for all of those in need of comfort and support.

I haven't been getting much done in any garden, lately. Fatigue, and the good rain we had, played a part. And DH has been a pest about some upcoming travel, and getting Christmas stuff done super early this year.

Such iris work as has been done has been potting up some very small increases of 'Sweet Musette' which I dug up back in ? July . I'm doing just a few pots of those for my garden helpers, as I still have some other iris which I have to dig (we have to do irrigation work in that bed) and those need to be potted. (It's a shame... I have a great many really small rhizomes of this iris, but I simply can't care for scores upon scores MORE of potted irises, and there is no place to put them in-ground. I already gave several larger rhizomes of this iris to the club's sale this summer, and I am growing other irises for next summer's sale, so in the end I will probably pitch them. )

What I should be doing is trying to improve the situation of a few irises that didn't bloom well this year. For 'Arctic Express' and 'Hidden Surprise', I have been yanking out some of the nearby Stachys, to give them room. Their rhizomes seem to have gotten buried and I don't know if I should dig them and replant them, or what . (I really don't need more digging.) In another part of the garden, 'Black Phantom' is growing in tremendously hard compacted clay, and that whole area should be worked over/loosened up/improved... but again, more digging, and I don't have the time/energy with dealing with the daylilies.

This being fall, I've been removing some daylilies and potting or planting out other (new) daylilies. Today I removed one daylily and realized as I was replacing it (with another), that the iris 'Luminosity' (some of which is currently blooming, some of which has scapes coming up) had gotten too close to the daylily. I had to get out my spading fork and dig up part of it - one fat mother rhizome with 4 increases on it, the increases too small to break off and plant/pot separately. I didn't want to dig another hole somewhere for it (and I probably have enough of this iris anyway, what with two other micro clumps of it), so I ended up potting that one too (in case I want it, in case I want to give it to the club for the potted iris sale at the spring show, whatever).

I've got too many pots here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sad to say that the PCI irises that I planted in the ground this fall don't seem to be doing well (as opposed to the 'Canyon Sunshine' which got planted this summer). Too much shade, maybe? I hope they don't die, though right now they are looking brown and not at all good. (I still have 3 more potted PCI irises to plant, and that excludes any that I might get at the November club meeting. I'm hesitant to do anything now, given how the most recently planted PCIs seem to be doing a header.)

My two surviving cristata irises grew through their pots into the ground , and now one of those looks to be dying.

It's not been a stellar fall, garden-wise.... and there are still many daylilies to pot or plant, some daylily seedlings to pot (or toss), and there is still the daylily rust to get after! Most likely with all of this work, and the upcoming travel, and the critter incursions, I will not have a cool season (lettuce, mostly) kitchen garden this year. And let's not talk about starting the daylily seeds...

But at least I have trapped one rat, thus far. (I'm surprised that I have only gotten one... I am sure there are a LOT more than that...)

And my potted chrysanthemums (the rabbits have mostly done for the in-ground ones ) have started blooming. Maybe in another 10 years or so I will have finally gotten on top of these things enough to be able to produce the magnificent single "florist" blooms, or some acceptable sprays.

Gratuitious shots of some of the chrysanthemums:


'Peacock' - a vigorous grower and a really lovely blend of colors; I just love this one


Taken at an odd angle (the pots were on a small table smack up against a retaining wall) are 'Seaton's J'Dore' (light pink) and the quirky 'Jackstraw' (yellow)

Omygoodness, Polymerous. Chrysanthemum, Peacock is so colorful and beautiful!

Nasty wind today so not worth it. Lovely pink mum!