Falling In Love (a.k.a. Peep's gardening journal)

[Broke Down Ranch]

Well, I live north of Waco (about halfway to Ft Worth) and it's not too bad. Killeen does suck but we are not quite as flat and bland. But you want to think bland, go to west Texas - I always thought of it as the armpit of Texas. I always apologize to my sister for her living in Big Spring! LOL.

We have crazy soil and growing conditions here. One side of the wash has bedrock like 3-4 inches down, but the opposite side of the wash you can go a couple of feet before hitting rock. Of course all the dirt on top is that nasty clay stuff. My kingdom for some sandy loam.....

I know what it's like to fall in love with a place. Just recently I went wandering all over our property taking pictures of wildflowers. I never knew I had such beautiful growing effortlessly. Now that I plant on an actual wildflower bed they will probably all croak....LOL!

 

[PunkinPeep]

Now's a good time for most of your bulbs and tuberous perennials. I just scored a bag of heirloom iris from my MIL last week.
:tools

OOh, that gave me an idea.....i'll get back to you.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Last year, about this time, i started seeing what looked like it was going to be some kind of bulb plant growing up. My husband thought it was just grass, but this grass was different. In the spring, they got much bigger, and off all of probably a few dozen plants, ONE blossomed.....at least i think it was the same a the others. And i think it was a Japanese iris - blue or purple in color. Very striking.

I just dug up one of them - the root is like a tuber - and put it in my little garden bed to see if it will bloom if it's exposed to a little more sun. That's the only thing i can think of that might've made so that one plant bloomed while the rest did not.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Irises LOVE sun - the more sun they get, the more blooms you'll get. If you get them moved NOW before winter you could possibly trick them into blooming next year. Otherwise it will be ANOTHER year before they'll bloom.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Irises LOVE sun - the more sun they get, the more blooms you'll get. If you get them moved NOW before winter you could possibly trick them into blooming next year. Otherwise it will be ANOTHER year before they'll bloom.

Ooh! Thanks for the tip! The little garden (and i mean little! it's about 4' x 4') gets SOME sun. So maybe i can move them tomorrow. They weren't hard to move, and they are probably going to start getting mowed where they're planted right now.

Is it normal for irises to grow wild? Or did someone plant them in a really inconvenient place 20 years ago?

If irises love sun, then it's a miracle that one bloomed last year. I think it must've been sitting in a tiny gap between the trees or something, so it go one little sunbeam. :coolsun

 

[lesa]

Don't plant them very deep. A little bit of the tuber should show above ground. Those small iris's do grow wild- I see them along creek beds. But, I have them growing in my garden. They are not as showy or long lasting as a bearded iris, but they are so sweet and delicate looking. One of my favs! Enjoy discovering your new home!

 

[PunkinPeep]

Don't plant them very deep. A little bit of the tuber should show above ground. Those small iris's do grow wild- I see them along creek beds. But, I have them growing in my garden. They are not as showy or long lasting as a bearded iris, but they are so sweet and delicate looking. One of my favs! Enjoy discovering your new home!

Thanks Lesa!

That makes a lot of sense. There are quite a few areas here that are streams only when it's raining, and these are growing next to one of those places.

Should i assume from that that they need a lot of water?

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

I think they would just need average water but it needs to be well-drained. Irises in general do not like to be soggy....

 

[PunkinPeep]

No problem there. I have the queen of well-drained soil. That's the definition of my soil.

 

[desertcat]

Back to the arborist question for a sec. I found them almost by accident. We have lots of folks up here who do "tree trimming" and will leave your trees looking like a stalk of broccoli. I, for some funny reason, didn't like that effect for my forest, so I called the fanciest ad in the yellow pages. Turns out they not only have 2 certified arborists, but a master forester on staff.

What I liked about working with them was the focus on the health of the trees and my forest in general. I thought we were going to have to take out several trees, but ended up losing only 3. Two were long past rehab and 1 was a crabapple.

Yeah, they were more expensive than the other guys, but the results were awesome. Highly recommend finding one if you have lots of trees to work on.