Zencat said:Daphne, that looks lovely!

thank you everyone. it's all upon me. DH hates any aspect of gardening, and was more than happy to give up a front lawn. not that it's of any gargantuan size. that side is probably 15 x 25'. the size of one of many of your flower beds. that's my whole front yard's planting space.

i'm still thankful i talked DH of downsizing to a condo with no garden space at all.

Lovely Daphne. I like the koi swimming thru river rock! Nice effect.

thank you jan, i like a little whimsy in my garden.

i had the real deal swimming in my last garden, but they are more work than i can handle at this juncture. so a bit of whimsy is good, plus i don't have to feed it, filter the water, or scrub out the pond.

great job on the yard Daphne.

Me too,

Looks great Daphne! We'll definitely need to see progress photos as the bed matures!

I've been working in Iris Lane, the past three days. Pulling weeds, adding soil to raise the bed level, transplanting Irises from the Nurserybeds. I've got the front half in pretty good order, which is a good thing.

But. One of the Irises that I wanted to move to IL is Looky Loo. I have wanted this Iris for several years, and it always eluded me. Last year, a kind ATP/NGA friend sent me two rhizomes. And this year they bloomed. I was SO excited!! And then -- one of the rhizomes rotted away, leaving behind one small increase -- which I carefully dug up and moved to IL. The other one? Had a nice-sized leaf (just one) and I had hopes that there was a decent-sized rhizome there. No such luck. The original rhizome had grown SIX increases, every one of them a reasonable size for their age. And five of them were completely rotted. The single leaf was attached to an increase that had completely rotted out underneath it, leaving about a 1/4" rim from that increase, from which one little 1" long root had grown. I went ahead and transplanted it, but it has nothing to support it -- no rhizome, no root structure. I fashioned a little cage around it from landscape-fabric pins, to give it a chance. Will it live? Likely not. But I had to try.

Goofy thing about the Irises in the Nurserybeds -- they either loved it there, or hated it. Some of the Irises I have dug out of there have rhizomes as big as my fist, loaded with increases that are hefty and healthy. Other Irises are either puny, or died altogether. Frustrating.

Such is the life of a gardener. This one, anyway............

It is tough going out and looking at markers surrounded by nothing but dirt where healthy rhizomes once were. I just got in at looking over the mess of leaves in the beds. Found one or two more that are dead. I tried doing what you did, nursing what was left but they didn't make it. But the bright side is I now have room for the Sisters sale, when it happens.

Blessings

Sorry to hear about your losses, Mary Ann and John.

Mary Ann, wish I had some to send you. Sometimes I think it must be genetic, not something that you are doing wrong. I have plants that are in the same bed and some do well and other don't. That is my theory anyway.

You're probably right, Teresa. More or less strong cultivars. We had such a challenging year for Irises this year -- rain virtually every day or night. The beds never did have a chance to dry out. That is so hard on Irises....

Thanks, Mika.

You're so right John -- sorry to hear of your losses, too.

Mary Ann, I already divided Looky Loo this year, but I might have another piece for you. Let me check what I've planted to make sure I've actually planted one to keep.

It's rained for the last 4 days here, with a week or more to come. Weather forecast says that Nov. 4 will be the first sunny day. It will be interesting to see how the irises fare . 5 inches so far.
Today I planted the tea-treated seeds in window-box shaped pots - long and narrow- and cheap! If I get seedlings I'll take pics.

Jan - its not IF but WHEN you get seedlings - positive thinking - looking forward to seeing them

Just a note about iris seeds. Do not plant them directly in the ground, but a pot of some sort. They can live for a long time & when you use the nursery bed again, a seed from a former planting can pop up & you get the 'what is that' reaction. In our northern climate we put the boxes in a trench in the ground & cover the trench with wire to keep small animals out of the trench,

2 inches of rain last night so garden too wet for leaf raking.

Most of what you see here was dug up this year. I only kept 1 rhizome from a lot of them (2 on the others). So I'm not expecting much to bloom this year.





Glad you got some rain too Lucy!

Beautiful garden Daphne! I look forward to seeing it when it matures too.