What I have learned from growing Iris

I remember seeing and smelling Iris at my Grand Mothers house when I was about 8 years old. I loved their appearance and fragrance. It was not until the 1990's when I began appreciating Iris enough to grow them. Our church had a collection of several spectacular Iris and I got the bug. I started a serious Iris garden about 2001. I joined the Iris Society about 2008. Since that time I have learned many tricks of the trade and experienced the disappointment of losing many iris to the iris bore. Here are some fundamentals I have learned by growing, caring for and transplanting iris. 

·         Iris do not like wet feet.  You should plant iris on a mound or a slope. They like good drainage. Too much water will lead to slugs, snails and rotting of the leaves; once the rust appears on the leaf; cut it off immediately.

·         Iris rhizomes like the sunlight. When you plant make sure the tops of the rhizome are exposed; not buried completely.  I have a slide that will illustrate this.

·         Iris thrive in the sunlight; or at least 50% sunlight.  You need sun to get a full bloom.

·         You must thin your rhizomes when they begin to get overcrowded in your bed; you will notice a decline in stalks and blooms.  Best is to use a sharp spade to split them. Sometimes I will transplant them into pots so I can share more of them with friends.

·         When you order from the Hybridizers / Iris Suppliers they send them out after the bloom; so expect to get them in June or July. I was in shock when I was told to plant them in the middle of the summer. I did, watered regularly, without over watering, and they grew beautifully. It was great when I finally saw the new growth.

·         You can force Iris to bloom in the greenhouse; force doesn’t sound politically correct; so let’s say you can advance the bloom by keeping them in light and warm. I heat my greenhouse at night if it is going to get near freezing.  I will generally translate some Iris into pots about April 1.  They will bloom at least two –three weeks early.

·         The standard dwarf Iris will bloom before the traditional tall bearded Iris.

·         The beauty of having some Iris in pots is that you get to observe their blooming process close up; my greenhouse table means I don’t have to bend over to get close. In addition I get some great photos of my Iris in the greenhouse.  Plus I can move the Iris into different studio settings; i.e. different backgrounds; patio bricks, grass, woods, textures of arbor vitae for example.   

·         Photographing Iris is a wonderful way to extend the enjoyment of their beauty; I sometimes wonder how much beauty one person can take in; it is so enriching to be around the beautiful.    

·         You can buy very fragrant Iris

·         You can see a gorgeous bed  of Japanese Iris at Kingwood Gardens in Mansfield

·         The Tony and Dorothy Willott  Iris Garden is located at the Rockefeller Greenhouse off of Martin Luther King Drive; right off of Rte 94 by Lake Erie. (First exit to the left on MLK Drive after turning South off of 94) Follow Greenhouse signs. Wonderful display of Iris beginning in early April and going through early July.

·         The amateur can hybridize new Iris cultivars by cross pollinating two different Iris.

·         Check out the Facebook page IRIS LOVERS for an amazing display of Iris in all their variety, and glory.

·         Send questions to dennis.deegan@gmail.com or make comments on this site. 

From Dormant to Adorable

Hot pink on the Window Sill

This hot pink geranium (more properly called pelargonium) grew fabulously for me last season out in the garden and on my deck in big pots. I dug this one up before the freezing cold could ‘tip its wings’ and shook the dirt off the roots and let it dry a few days. Then I placed it (and several other geranium buddies) in my traditional winter hide aways (green garbage bags) and hid them in the rafters in my work room.

I knew I could capture Mother Nature’s magic in early January (if they had signs of budding) and guess what? They did. Buds seem to come early than I remember. I thought I always planting my mother plants in Mid-February. Whatever, when they are ready, I sneak a look. It is always exciting to see the buds and know it is time to put the once dorman plant into some fertile soil. I always think about how I have to invest a little electric to give them some light and heat. Seems I like a spend quite a bit to pull off this trick. I have heating pads and over head florescent light, down in my cool basement. You don’t really want a lot of light or heat; just enough to get those roots growing.  

Normally this plant along with others would have been thriving in my Hoop house since March, but my poly wore out and I decided not to replace it this year. So, no hoop house. Of course I miss it. I love being in a semi-humid greenhouse structure  watching my plants and seedlings getting a head start. Next year I think I will prepare a video about the process I go through to ‘bring them back to life’. I just love seeing some bright pink color in the Kitchen sun room in early spring. It is adorable. Can I say that about a flower?   

Gerbera Dasies Taking their Sweet Time

Nursery grown Gerbera

This a healthy and rich looking Gebera daisy that I bought from Green Circle Growers and transplanted into my Deegan magic soil. The leaves are lush and the petals are wide and plentiful. Geberas are about $4.00 a piece so it adds up.

It is a tradition of mine to buy three or four and plant them in the same large flower pot and place them on the front porch for my wife Nancy to enjoy. She loves the gerbera daisies because they have rich green foilage and bright and beautiful pastel blooms. While I purchased a few for potting up this year  I  thought I would like try growing my own. I learned  on line quickly that the seeds are hard to find. after extensive searching I finally found a source and bought 100 seeds.

Home Grown Gerbera Blooms

The seeds took forever to germinate and grew painfully slow. To the point that I had to put them into the basement under grow lights as the danger of frost came early this year. Iam  showing a few pictures of the Gerberas that I grew. They tend to have slim petals and not as full a bloom. They almost look more like traditional daisies than Gerberas. I have the seed company name somewhere and I am thinking of writing them a letter and pehaps including pictures.

This bloom to the left looks thicker than it is because this is a close up. 
 

Waking up my Geraniums

It is that time of the year when my dormant geraniums are coaxed out of their sleep to begin sprouting leaves and blooms. Actually, it has been over 45 days since I planted some of the geranium plants that I placed in a plastic garbage bag last Fall. Right before the frost hit last October I dried out at least two dozen strong specimens before putting them in my storeroom to go to sleep for a few months.

What you see on this page are a few plants that sprang back to life after being dormant for at least three months. The  geranium below is a variegated variety that is a beautiful pink color. The other plant you are looking at has rich dark green leaves and I believe this is my hot pink variety.

I started some ivy geranium cuttings in January but I believe my watering was not consistent  and the severe cold caused too much temperature variation. Only one of them germinated.

Last year I grew over 20 Ivy geraniums from cuttings. I hope you experiment with  your own cuttings. Let me know if you have any questions about the amazing results you can have by propagating geraniums from cuttings.

   

       
 

Putting the Garden to Bed

All of us serious gardeners have to put our gardens to bed for the winter. This year it just seems all that bending has taken the charm out of the process for me. Man, the ole back gets sore, quicker. Can't be permanent can it? I must have strained myself, didn't stretch right or lifted something wrong.

The point is, somebody has to do the work or you don't maximize the grandeur of the garden for next Spring. Cutting back the Iris, Echicinea (Cone flowers), Brown eyed Susan's, Mums, Hosta and all the other perennials. Plus, pulling some of the clumps of grass and weeds in the garden come naturally; especially when the ground is moist. I also hate it when the sod is creeping into the edge of the bed. Got to get it now, before it gets a head start in March and April.

I always try to groom the bed by raking up the soil and spreading it out more evenly. My flower bed is about 30 feet long and elevated, so I need to push the soil back up that slides down when it rains. I have been thinking it would be nice to put a brick retaining wall up around the bed; maybe two courses up with some packed gravel beneath. Then I would not have to constantly dig out the edges. My that is work. I think that project may have to go on my calendar for next year.

Now my veggie garden is my storage garden for all my potted plants, to winter them over and re pot them in the early spring and pop them into my hoop house for expedited root growth and expanded blooms later. I have rows of Mums, Brown-eyed Susan's, coreopsis, Iris, and other perennials temporarily in the ground in my veggie garden. I also get a lot of plants prepared for the Garden Club plant sale in the Spring.

We got some great rain a few days after I did most of my transplanting. The day I re-planted most of my potted plants I gave them a good drink of water, but knowing the rains were coming, I did not get carried away; just a drink. I hope the majority of the plants survive winter. The only thing I regret is that the ground did not dry out enough to allow me to rototill it and loosen it up for Spring. Since the soil is so fertile and humus like, I am not worried about it being difficult to turn over in the Spring. It is just that it feels like the right thing to do; to turn it over.  I would love to add more enriched soil and perhaps another  level of 8 x 8's to give more depth to the garden.  Always something to do. See you in the Garden. 

Growing Pearls for the Heart

Growing Flowers is Similar to Growing Wisdom

I have always loved to grow things. When I was a child we had a lovely rose garden and I used to chat with my neighbor across the alley about how to make my roses thrive.  I think his name was Ray and he and his wife were friendly souls.  He used bone meal and different types of fertilizer, including peat moss to make his roses reach their peak glory. I also used to love to grow petunias for my Mother and would plant them every summer near Mother's Day. She loved the fragrance and it gave me joy to observe this annual tradition. Flowers for Mom.

I also grew a collection of Wisdom quotations over the years as well. These quotes blossomed in my heart and soul and gave me the tools I needed to cope and deal with the challenges of life. Now, in my golden years I have decided I have enough life lessons to write my own words of wisdom, so the quote you see above is my first  ORIGINAL WISDOM QUOTE suitable for publication. I am totally inspired to write at least one quotation per week as a blossoming of my philosophy of life. It is gratifying to embrace ones' own thoughts as having merit and value, worthy to be shared with the world at large.  

I hope you grow in wisdom and understanding as you share my Pearls of Wisdom. We can't take it with us, but we can take time to celebrate the highlights of a contented life. In all thy getting get understanding. See you in the Garden.    

Chrysanthemums in Pots

It is an acquired skill to grow and groom mums to be a perfect specimen with gorgeous bloom bursting forth as the weather cools. You want the shape of the plant to be full, with plentiful blooms and relatively close proximity.  The gardeners rule of thumb is 'no cutting back after July 4th'. It is not an exact science to trim back the plant just right, especially if you have varied sun and shade patterns as I do.  My goal is to produce full body Mum plants (in pots) suitable to display around my house and to share with my son's Pete and Paul. 

The mum stems reach for the light and can get lanky; creating weak stems that tend to hang instead of grow upright.  I want strong stems in the center of the plant to support a thick bloom.  So there is an element of trial and error to shape the Mum in the ideal form that you tend to see at the nurseries. From a practical standpoint, if I get really good spring growth, my trimmings of the growth can be my source for Mum cuttings to produce my next crop. I made about a dozen cuttings this year that are blooming nicely in my flower bed. 

In the picture to the below I have a yellow Mum in the background with a reddish purple Mum in front. This is a north west view  on my deck stairway landing. The sun is about perfect to give it the light it needs to grow and bloom. They seem to prefer a balanced amount of light and temperature which helps avoid the drying out tendency when you get direct sunlight all day.  I am quite pleased with the abundance of blooms on this plant. I planted my Mums, of course, in  my 'magic soil' early in the season in separate large flower pots.

My special soil consists of about 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat, 1/3 generic soil, and a fair amount of  sand and pearlite.The sand helps retain moisture and also prevents the soil from pulling away from the sides of the pot.The pearlite helps the roots to move easilty and aids drainage. I surmised that the sand might also keep the chipmunks from chomping through the soil to get at the roots, but they still seem to dig in the Mum's yard. The sand does help contain the moisture and I think creates an idea medium for plant growth. If I had a true green house, with good air flow, and continual sunlight,I think I could create award winning Mums. 

This was a good year for my Mums and I even left a few in my Hoop House and of course the humidity is making the blooms thrive; albeit, with a look of being a hanging Mum, with the stems looking a little gangley.  However, I  can not complain about the great display of color above. I was very happy with my Mums in the Garden Pots this year.  Next season  I plan to grow more cuttings from the yellow Mum so I have greater variety to display around my yard. This fall I displayed flower pots of Marigolds, Geraniums, Ageratum and Vinca vine on my 'Great Wall of Deegan', as Nancy calls it. See you in the garden.