Just got home from the Reedley garden give-take. Despite the rain, people came to get their free plants. I spent most of the time dividing bags and boxes of Canna roots. I came away with a number of plants I've wanted for a while. I now have a rooted snowball viburnum, a clump of chrysanthemums of unknown color, a rooted Monster cutting, assorted succulents, a bay tree seedling, a tomato plant or two and a few other odds and ends.

My best take home of the day though, were several iris plants. They were labeled as pink, red/ purple/beige, Black, and dark purple/black. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow and I'll be able to plant them. I can't wait to see them bloom. These were the healthiest Iris plants that have come in to our give-and-take for several years. I think I even got a couple different dwarf or mini Iris. If I wasn't so tired, I would go out and try to plant a few today. But, considering the fact that my rolling chair outside is drenched, I forgot to cover it before it started to rain, I guess tomorrow will have to do.

Tamara ~ to the Iris Forum!

What an interesting collection of plants you will have the joy of planting and growing, Tamara.

to the iris forum.

Tamara,

Another to the iris forum.

Thank you.
The sun came out this afternoon but I was too tired to go out and plant. Hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow and I'll tackle getting the plants out of the trunk of my car to see what gets planted first. Hopefully my chair will be dry by then.

Tamara. I hope your irises flower for you this year.

to the iris forum Tamara.

tamara.


it might surprise you, that you'll be adding more rhizomes to your plant collection than you'd ever imagined. it's like eating potato chips; you can't eat just one!

Just came in. After pulling weeds, I planted 4 or 5 different tall bearded Iris. I also planted a group what I believe to be dwarf Iris, but I'll probably pull them up tomorrow and divide the rhizomes. Let's see, what else did I plant? Well, five bunches of chrysanthemums, a scented geranium, an "I don't know" geranium, an unknown variety of tomato, an unknown variety of thyme, three over four unknown daylilies, and a few succulents.

Tomorrow, if I can get down the stairs to my chair, I need to plant the bunch of Succulents I picked up for my niece at the Reedley plant give and take. She and her husband, who is a pilot with the Air National Guard, leave tomorrow morning for a vacation in Hawaii. Oh well, somebody has to sit on the beach. I also have a Monstera cutting to repot, several more groupings of chrysanthemums, and a few more day lilies. If I can figure out where to put them I also have three seedlings of sweet peas I picked up at the give take, plus four or five mystery seedlings I started that have turned out to be more sweet peas.

Talking about one never being enough, I found some more Iris rhizomes I must have gotten back in March at the Fresno give take. They were in the bottom of one of my buckets that I have on my porch where I do most of my gardening. Now I just need to pull out some more weeds around the tree so I have somewhere to plant them.

CVCV, the nonprofit group I belong to, is sponsoring another plant give take event this Saturday in Merced. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to that one. But not to worry. The city of Fresno is sponsoring their Water Wise plant give and take on the 28th. at Fresno State University. I've also been volunteering at that event since it started about 10 years ago. Since I can't walk around very well, I take my little hatchet and a chair and sit at the back table dividing plants as they come in. It's great fun, and it gets me out and about.

Welcome Tamara.
Keep us posted on how those irises turn out. Post pictures also.
Use that hatchet when you have to, plants or self-protection!

Welcome Tamara!

Did you know there's a Fresno Iris Society?

I thought there probably was a Fresno Iris society because I've heard there is an iris farm nearby.
About three or four years ago I put some left over iris rhizomes from one of our give takes in a 6 inch deep x ≈12 inch long plastic container, because I wasn't able plant them in the ground. I never did get around to planting them and they have never flowerd, that is, until now. I noticed that two of the plants have buds on them. If the weather stays nice they will probably open this week.

Oops! Just found out today that the CVCV may not be the sponsor of the Merced give take this weekend. I guess I thought that it was because a number of the master gardeners in my nonprofit group go to help with the Merced event. I think it is actually sponsored by the Merced grange. I'm still hoping to go to help with the event on Saturday. It depends if my back cooperates. I just spent about four hours on my porch potting and repotting some more plants. I finally got around to plant cuttings of my creeping Charlie for my sister. I've been meaning to do that for a couple years now. Oh well, better late than never.

Took a few pictures of my mystery iris. It looks like the one tip showing color will be purple


Also took a few of my roses. Poor things need deadheading and all the dead wood pruned away. I did a bit yesterday and I'll try again tomorrow.

Beautiful roses and I like the potted cactus too.

Thanks. My roses must love me. Other than cutting a rose or two for the house (their scents are very strong), and maybe cutting out some dead wood from to time, they are on their own.They are lucky if they get watered once or twice a month during the summer. I keep threatening to prune them pack to 3 feet every January, but I never seem to get around to actually doing it. The peace rose (yellow/pink) is from a cutting my mother got in 1963 from the local Veteran's Hospital. The pink Queen Elizabeth is from a cutting from my grandmother's yard over 40 years ago. The rest of the roses are at least 30 years old.

Me again. Just got home from the Merced Plant Give and Take and was greeted by a newly opened Iris. It is from one of the rhizomes I planted at leas 3-4 years ago in a shallow plastic planter. It was a bud when I left this morning. I just love purple iris.



The event in Merced was small, but a success.We had ≈75 - 100 people come for plants.
While I was chopping and breaking apart plants, I collected a few to bring home. I picked some rooted mint and rosemary, hydrangea cuttings, a large potted succulent for my niece, a box of succulent ground cover (at cleanup), a few hens and chicks, and best of all several, you guessed it, Iris. Have to wait till they are planted and bloom to find out what color most of them are, but one was labeled 'Rootbeer'. That's the fun of give take events. You never know what you will end up with. If I decide I don't like something, I take it back next year.

There is another give take event on the 28th, sponsored by the City of Fresno and CSU, Fresno. It is listed on the Upcoming Events Calendar. It is called the WATER WISE Plant Give and Take. I'll be at the back table with my little hatchet, cutting up plants to distribute. Hope to see some of the Fresno members there.

Those give take events sound like fun.

I started going to them with my grandmother when I was in Junior or senior high in the 60's.Now there was a gardener. Still climbing trees at 95 and lived to 102. She would have been climbing trees the last few years of her life too if my uncles and aunt hadn't kept taking away her ladders, including the ones she would borrow from her neighbors.
I started to volunteer at the give take days my last couple years of high school or when I started college. I can't rember. That was a long, long time ago.
It is great fun and you learn so much about so many different plants. Every event, every year it's different.