Iris Arrival and Planting

These are the irises from C and T Iris Patch. They arrived nicely packaged, nice fresh rhizomes and leaves. They appear to have been just recently dug and processed, nice. Well packed in excelsior. Two were labeled differently from the order - I emailed the seller and they responded almost immediately, this was a labeling error, that the irises as listed on the invoice were correct. Great service!

I really appreiate how carefully these were packed. The rhizomes tended to be a bit smaller than those from Scheiner's, but I can't complain since the price was much lower. (How does Schreiner's get the so big? Buch bigger than my established iris rhizomes). Also, they were much better than what I've bought in previous years locally, from big box stores, and they are much more fresh, there is more time for them to establish, and I get to support what appears to be a family business.  They may well bloom next Spring - that would be nice.

Since I've been so big on container planting, I opted to plant a few in this container - a wooden half-barrel-style container that I harvested garlic from last month. I plan to use fresh soil for next year's garlic, and only grow one container - more in raised beds at the country plane - so I had this one to spare. I planted them so they would grow from center to outward edge. They will need replanting in one to two years. These are the yellows - Los Coyotes, Love the Sun, Sun Catcher, and a rhizome from my patch of Sunny Delight, which I want to renovate or remove and plant the irises elsewhere since it's overgrown with grass.

These went into a planter box. They will need transfer to ground or elsewhere in one to two years.  This is a chance to get a head start.   I didn't have a good place prepared in the ground yet. I can move them onto the deck when blooming, then back to the yard when done. I pointed them as I did, with growth patterns in mind. The cut portion of the rhizome is near one edge, giving lots of room for the other end to grow. These Diety, Whole Cloth (heritage variety), Romeo (heritage variety), and Pink Millennium.

Some more new Iris varieties

These are via C&T Iris Patch, and are not yet shipped.  Couldn't resist.  The prices are very good, but I have not seen what the shipped rhizomes look like yet.  I'm hoping that, by growing them in Colorado, these will be durable varieties.  Also, I will make a bed for them at the Battleground place.  I'm thinking of the space between trees in the mini-Orchard.  It will be quite a few years before the fruit trees are big enough that too much shade will be an issue. Despite wanting to increase heritage varieties, most are fairly recent. Some are antiques. The photos are from the catalog - I hope that's OK since I linked to it.

Romeo. French firm Millet et Fils, from 1912

Diety. Monty Byers, 1988

Leprechaun's Delight. Developed by Weiler, 1986. Miniature Iris.

Los Coyotes. Developed by Burseen, 1992

Northwest Progress, Schreiner's 1997.

Fire on Ice, Weiler, 1990.

Pink Millenium, Schick, 1999.

Suncatcher. Ensminger, 1992.

Sweet Reflection. Maryott's, 1991

Whole Cloth. Cook, 1958 While at Portland Nursery, I saw this potted iris on the 50% off table, so bought it as well.

Iris is "Cherry Garden", photo is via "hort.net Cherry Garden was developed by Jones in 1966, and is a miniature."

Bakyard Orchard Walkabout

Midsummer, the yard and backyard orchard is jungle-like in greenery.

On the left Illinois Everbearing mulberry. This is year #3. Not many mulberries yet, but the ones I get are incredibly good.

Container gardens, tomatoes, beans, onions, peppers.

Left to right, pole beans, King fig, Sal's fig (in white pot), Bonanza miniature peach (2 peaches this year - leaf curl disease again), and some branches of Lattarua fig.  The Sal's will move to the Battleground place soon.

The purple leaf tree is Hollywood plum.  The plums are still firm but getting closer.  On the far left, one of the ginkgos I grew from a seed, now about 10 feet tall.  Half as tall as the one the same age, in the back yard.  The difference is likely the benefit of watering, improved soil, lots of dog "product" over 10 years in the back yard.  The mulch is made from prunings I took from the cherry trees.

The grass is brown for the summer.  It will grow back.  Apple on the right is Jonagold.

Charlie standing by Liberty Apple.

The yellow fruits are Shiro plum. We've eaten a few. This week they should be in full juiciness and sweetness.

Today I noticed the summer figs starting to soften. Maybe a week away? This is variety "Petite negri", red inside, blue-black outside. My favorite.

Scene of the Crime

Murder most fowl in the hen house. I've discovered that instead of the usual 3 hens, we now have 2 hens and a pile of feathers. No calls yet from CSI-Vancouver.

There's not even a corpse to draw a chalk outline around. I suspect raccoons. Possum or rat wouldn't carry the body away. I think. The survivors are traumatized. One has witnessed a similar crime before. If only she could talk.

Lilies

I don't know the name for this one. It's quite beautiful. It's now mid season for lilies. The orientals are just beginning. Tiger type lilies are finishing. I pollinated Citronella with pollen from Orange Turks Cap lily (Lilium henryi). The Asiatic lily hyrids are long gone, and the Trumpet lilies are almost gone as well.

First fig of the year.

The prize goes to Lattarula. I had one yesterday but it was slightly spoiled on the tree. So the is the first really good fig. At 72 grams it's a fair sized fig, nice and juicy and sweet.

I also planted 3 little fig plants at the new place in Battleground. More on that later. The soil is a little better than it was originally here in Vancouver, but not much. Plus, it's mid summer, hot, dry. As potted fig plants, they should have less transplant shock than one dug out of the ground. I planted 2 King figs, each about a foot tall, and one Petite negri, which I've been growing for about 4 or 5 years and has a fair number of small figs on its branches. With lots of water and lots of mulch, maybe they will do OK. One year I left a potted Petite negri fig plant sitting on the deck without water for about 2 months, and it survived.

Beans are ready

These are the beans I planted in tubs April 14, so roughly 90 days from seed to bean.

There are lots more beans on the plants, ready or barely formed.

The beans themselves aren't visible until you get right into the plant.

Iris Order

Order came from Schreiner's Irises. I don't usually "endorse" a source or product. This blog is just my garden diary. But this is different. The rhizomes from Schreiner's were the best I've ever bought. They were carefully packed in excelsior. The tubers were beyond plump - they were like elephant iris. The were clean, healthy, and the leaves were green. I'm so impressed. They also sent two "bonus" tubers, varieties I didn't order. The bonus tubers were just as beautiful as the ones I bought. Schreiners is at schreinersgardens.com. No room for other additional varieties in the yard now. I had to dig out the patch of Bumblebee Delite, pull out the weeds, and install a weed border as I did for the others, for one and for a couple of rhizimes from Bumblebee Delite, and the found Iris I previously labeled Rescue Me but that isn't really a variety. These are the varieties I'm planting. The pics are from the Schreiner's online catalog. I hope they don't mind, especially since I just gave them a AAA rating.

Pink Bubbles.

Redondo.

Mariposa Skies.

Crimson Cloud.

Gay Parosol.

Garlic from seeds

I've been reading several internet postings on growing garlic from seeds. As far as I can tell, this isn't currently done except in research and by some dedicated hobbyists. Garlic plants have been cultivated from cloves for eons - probably in a continuous string of generations (clones) dating back thousands of years. As a result, they have nearly lost their capacity to make seeds. Some don't even make flower stalks (scapes). Those that make flower stalks/scapes are the "hard neck". In the ones that do make scapes, much or all of the flower head is replaced by tiny baby garlic bulbs (bulbils) instead of flowers. Those bulbs can be grown into plants, but they are genetic clones of the parent plant. It turns out that there actually are flowers, but they form more slowly than the bulbils, and are crowded out and die before blooming. Getting garlic to make flowers involves removing the bulbils before they take over the room and resources of the scape. The covering is split open, and twezers are used to remove bulbils as soon as possible. Removing the covering from this scape, it looks to me like these are flowers. The bulbils must not be formed yet. I will leave it in place, and wait for the other 3 plants whose scapes I inadvertently left in place.

This may not work at all. I've never done it. Gardening is always an experiment.

The potential advantages of seed are many. In the millenia of cloning, genetic diversity is lost. There is some mutation and adaptation via rogueing, because sports also form. But overall, the genetic diversity is decreased, and the ability to adapt more quickly to environmental challenges or growth in new areas, becomes decreased. In addition, if seeds can be formed, so can hybrids. Hybrids give us more choices, and increase potential adaptation and development of variety, such as larger bulbs, or growing faster. Again, based on reading multiple articles, once a new generation of garlic is produced by seeds, subsequent generations are easier to produce. Finally, it's mentioned that viruses are passed through cloning, but not through seed production. I've seen that said for other plants too. I don't know if garlic varieties are virus infected - probably not as bad as with plants that are grafted (fruits, roses) or have long lives (figs), but it's been proposed that producing virus free seed-produced plants would mean more vigor and higher production.

Paw Paw Trees

Here are the 2 containerized Paw Paw trees I bought yesterday at Portland Nursery. When I walked past them I thought No! Impossible! They are the named varieties, Sunflower and NC-1. Based on my readings, the roots are delicate. The trees are best planted while in growth, not dormant. It is best to shade them for the first 1 to 2 years.   I'll have to identify a spot, clear it, enrich it with compost, and plant them. Not sue if I'll do that now or just keep them in the containers and plant next Spring.