Bearded Irises, Better Photos. 5.15.14

Alcazar  1910

 I think Alcazar is generally larger.  This is the first year.  I'm surprised it bloomed at all.

Bumblebee Deelite 1985

 In 2012 I dug out the overgrown bundle of Bumblebee Deelite and replanted at various locations around the Battleground yard.  There were too many rhizomes, so I planted left-overs in the fence row.  They look nice there.

Caprice 1898

 While planting Tomato plants 2 beds over, I smelled the fragrance of Caprice wafting in the wind.  The writers are right, it's like Grape Koolaid.  But better.

Red Hawk  1995

 This is an excellent depiction.   The  color is richer than most photos.

Edith Wolford 1986

 The Walking Onions add a nice appearance to Edith Wolford bearded iris.

Mislabeled Pink Fragrant

 This was sold as Whole Cloth, which is blue and white.  Whatever it is, the fragrance is very sweet and floral.  The downside, it is less vigorous and more disease susceptible compared to some of the others.

Bearded Iris Bed.  5.15.14

Gay Parasol.  1974.

 Smaller flower than some modern tall beardeds, but very nice and very fragrant.  Gay Parasol.

Indian Chief.  1929.

 Really wanted this Indian Chief bearded iris to bloom this year.  And it did.  Also a nice fragrance, mild.

Gracchus.  1884.

 Gracchus bearded iris was one of the most disease resistant.  And all of these flowers from one rhizome.  Small but vigorous.

Unknown from Tennessee.

 Must be an early plicata, or an unnamed seedling.  Sold by a Tennessee company via mail order.

Red Zinger.  1985.

 Miniature.  I grew Red Zinger from a dried out sale rhizome late 2012.  It didn't bloom last year.  I'm surprised, now it's vigorous.  You almost have to be on  your knees to smell them.  It's worth it.  A candy fragrance.

Loreley.  1909.

 Loreley historic bearded iris.  Almost like Japanese irises.  Some are fully open, some partially.  The white outline on the falls makes them stand out nicely in photos.   Sweet fragrance.  Same Tennessee company as the unknown.  Slow start, but this year very nice.  Seems to be disease resistant.

Bearded Irises.  5.15.14

I'm happy with the bearded irises, both modern and historic / heritage irises.  I thought they might all die off this late winter, but they are blooming nicely.  Some varieties have the most and largest flowers I've seen.

Some of the leaves don't look great.  As long as they grow out of it, I'm OK.

Apple and Pear Fruit Thinning. 5.13.14

About the only puttering today - used a kitchen scissors to thin apples and pears.   Thinned all of the varieties.  distance between fruits is the width of my hand.  That makes for larger, earlier, better tasting fruits.  The technique is simple.  Just cut off all apples or pears, save one, in each cluster.  If clusters less than about 4 inches apart, just leave one.

Historic Irises. 5.13.14

Heritage Iris Bed #2

Heritage Iris Bed #1

Mostly Heritage Irists

Heritage Iris "Indian Chief"

Heritage Iris "Loreley"

These aren't the best pics.  Forgot camera so used Ipad.  Now it's in the 70s and 80s. Much drier and warmer.  The onslaught of illness has abated.  These can be considered among the toughest and most resistant, simply because they survived and bloomed.

In Iris Bed #2, "Orange Harvest" looks out of place, so should be removed.  It is labeled as fragrant but I don't smell anything.

Caprice and Pallida dalmatica both have a grape soda fragrance.  Very nice.

The colors here are fairly true, but a little washed out.  That is effect of Ipad and it is very sunny.

Potatoes 5.11.14

Potato "barrel" made from concrete tree ring edging.

The potatoes are growing fast.  I didn't have a chance to buy more compost to fill in around them.  So I used partially decomposed, compacted maple leaves from last fall.

They filled in around the potato plants nicely.

I don't know if this will work.  I've read that straw works, so maybe leaves will work.

Strawberry Bed. 5.11.14

I know why the caged strawberry blooms

The strawberries are blooming nicely.

Last year I transferred the strawberry plants from containers to this raised bed.  That was about one month after my surgery, so I didn't have the strength or energy to do anything else.  They looked good, then deer ate off all of the plants.

So it has an ugly chicken wire cage.  The flowers give promise of a good crop this year.  WIth strawberries, deer, rabbits, and birds are a risk.  But I can still say they are grown in local soil, and local conditions.  Home grown strawberries are very good, way beyond what you can get from the store.