Daphne, looks like most of your questions were answered about differences in soil vs. pot, but for one. The height of a blossom should be from the bottom end of the fall, where it branches off from the stalk, to the top of the standards.

Yesterday I did get some compost dug into an area in front edge of a long bed. Even staying 9"/22cm away from the plants some roots were seen! So decent growth in 1 year of new bed in builder's "soil" with few amendments.

I'm adding another bed. I'll be all finished hopefully by rainfall Tuesday. My holiday weekend was a true workout. Ps. Last 47 days combined we've gotten 0.08" of rainfall. Everything is drooping my way.

Dave, I had no idea that was the way an iris bloom was measured. Thanks for enlightening.

It's been a dry fall here, too, Gabe, although much wetter than your conditions....Oct. total was 1", and, so far,.21" for November(average for each month is 3" + !). We've been watering the "new" grass, and all the fruit trees, and my son will keep that up until we either start getting rain, or the ground freezes. Rita and I will be leaving Wed., or Thurs. for our winter haunts, and I *hate* to leave him with the extra work , but, I'm sure he can handle it !

More tarps of leaves to the mulching pit. Don't worry there are more to come, but at least most except some oak leaves are off the trees.

thx. dave...i,ll be able to keep more acurate records now that i know exactly where i'm supposed to measure.



did nothing in the garden today, except with DH's help upright one of the 5.5' plumeria trees (in pots), toppled by the 30-40 m.p.h. gusts we've been experiencing. the gusts have come along with steady rain, intermittent downpouring, and drizzle. i think we've gotten at least 1/2 - 3/4" of rain since saturday.

however, since i experienced that "rot in a pot". i've been more vigilant of the pots....since i only used soil from a bag, and did not ammend with sand or perlite. my bad. i was anxious to pot the irises up as soon as they came w/out the added time to go to either lowe's or home depot to get the additions. didn't think i would have probs w/rot since we are always so dry here. now i know, but at the expense of problems. so, lesson learned, get some perlite! ( now developing hawk eyes for rot) lol


[edited to fix typo toppled]

Too cold here to do any iris related work in the garden, except replace a few markers which had come out of the ground after my favorite tree (Thornless Common Honeylocust/Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis) was cut down by our aborist because of rot. The only way to get rid of the debris was to haul it through one of the perennial beds, which took its toll on the roses and irises especially and left a few markers out of the ground too. Now I am sitting staring a the empty space left behind and feeling quite sad and the 'new' view of our neighbour's house with a huge TV antenna on top does nothing to cheer me up...
The good news: I had the arborist leave quite a tall 'stump' behind and I now have a new spot in which to grow a large rambling rose!

More rain here last night and all day on and off. Had about an inch and a quarter last night, probably another quarter of an inch today. Huge ponds of water all over again. Wish I could send it where it's needed. Looks like Bonnie may have gotten some rain too. I know you need it down there.

We had about the same as you, Tom.....but no puddles here ! It was so darn dry, it got all "sucked up" !

Still rainy down here and more is expected tonight. Cloudy, muddy & gloomy all day.

Blue sky and sun here, but very cold. I removed leaves from on top of rhizomes, and whispered a few sweet nothings to iris stalks in the hope of persuading the buds to open despite the frost that is forecast for tonight. (Yes, I know!)

Rain in store for us tomorrow & Wed. I hope that it shows up.

i just walked around my garden to survey for any other damage the wind might have wrought. nothing so far, but i did see a bright shiny face.
. 'tiger play' kerr 2013



'tiger play' a little confused, ( not a rebloomer but the friend who gave 'tp' to me reported that hers bloomed recently in her garden in santa cruz, ca). it made my day after a dissapointing show from 'perfectionist'. 'perfectionist' did not quite live up to it's name, and looks totally different than the photo shown in the catalog. i wrote to the grower, and am awaiting a reply.



. 'perfectionist'

the description said it was a white self, with white beards. the one that bloomed in my garden had blue striping veins on the falls, and white tipped yellow beards. i am a bit

We're getting a lot of rain here...nearly every day, Quite a change from the
drought!!

We've had a bit of snow over the last couple of days. About an inch, total. Starship was almost open before this but the flowers are a globby mess now.

Daphne, looks like they sent you the wrong iris. Hope they replace it for you.

Tiger Play sure is pretty.

Yay to rain. We are suppose to finally get some tomorrow.

It rained. Over an inch. It was gentle and misty and took all day and the earth drank it in. What a blessing.

thx. leslie. i heard from the grower. she said that 'perfectionist' blooms darker in the fall than the spring. if it still dark in the spring when it blooms again, they will replace it for me.

It can be quite confusing the way a grower describes a beard and other parts. Some only list the top color of the beard neglecting the part under the tips, or say a fall is white when it has non-white veins, etc. And of course some are just plain wrong.

Tiger Play is a nice one!

Wet here all day; 1-1.5"/2.5-3.8cm expected and already close. Nothing being done outside here except walk the dog. Official drought here, but not like the southern US. Just read that east Tennessee has quite a few fires now to add to those in North Carolina and elsewhere. So how to send the rain there?

I wish you could, Dave. And ppl will burn leaves despite the burn ban and hunters should know better than to smoke while hunting. We are all on edge and firefighters are working overtime. So far all fires are contained but smoke can get bad.