Help Beautify the City Dave Lives In

Ok, I've been asked by someone to help get some named irises donated to be used in the city of Jacksonville Texas. As most of you probably already know this is the city where Dave (Dave's Garden) now resides. Let's put this little city that's tucked neatly into the Piney woods of East Texas on the IRIS map. We can do this if a bunch of people will give just give a little. Remember, it's better to give than receive or so my mother always taught me.

Anyway the Master Gardeners in Jacksonville have a project going on and could use some plants. They are going to have a bunch of of island beds and the MG's will be in charge of keeping them up, weeded, cleaned out etc. They will be teaching school kids all about plants with these beds too. Not only that, but they are going to be growing all kinds of different veggies for a food pantry. This really is a very good cause and I have 3 people from my iris society here in East Texas that are going to donate. If you would like to be a part of this no matter how big or small I'm sure that they would love to receive some of your plants.

If you want to help, contact me and I'll give you the contact persons name. By they way they too are a member of Dave's Garden, and one of the Master Gardeners. Thanks for any and all considerations no matter how small. We can make a difference one garden at a time.

Best Regards and Happy Gardening Everyone,
Marian

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Marian, do they care if the correct name is on the iris? If not, I've got a bunch they can have. Let me know.

Jeanette

Hi Jeanette,
I'm sure that they would take whatever we can come up with. I think they want some named ones too however, so they can show and teach the children about the plants and the difference in the names and such. I'll send you a personal dmail and you can contact him and see how you can help.

Thanks so much for getting back with me. We can make this happen and help beautify more of East Texas.
Happy Gardening, Marian

Thank you so much to the people who have contacted me to help. Your good deeds will be rewarded.
Marian

As a member of the Cherokee Co. Master Gardeners, I want to thank Marion and the others for your assistance. I do hope that the ones we receive will be ones that can be grown in our area. The area to be planted is mostly full sun with amended soil. This is zone 8 and our first frost date is mid to usually late October. We are not picky but we do have some of the common ones with no names that are purple, white and yellow. If your plants are NOIDs this is fine but knowing the bloom color will be helpful when planting.

Yes, Dave is an active Honorary member of our group.
Thanks again,
DD

I'm just glad that some of the Iris people on here are willing to help you David with this wonderful project.
Now they can respond directly here to this link and not have to go through me. I'm so glad you jumped in here.

I just know that there should be plenty of wonderful folks here on the Iris forum to provide you with a very wide varitey of irises.

A couple of people are new to using Dave's Garden Dmails so for you..... if you do not want to post where EVERYONE can read what you have to say you can click on DdeTex up there in the green and send him a dmail directly.

Thanks for any and all help no matter how small to beautify Dave's town with our wonderful iris plants!
Best Regards and Happy Gardening, Marian

Thanks to those that have responded with offers of iris. You are a very generous group of folks on here. Look forward to the iris we receive and seeing blooms next spring. Since this well be a demonstration/teaching garden, we can use them in several locations to see the different growing and blooming results.
How far apart do you usually plant your iris ?
Thanks again,
DD
Even an iris society is sending some for us to use. I am sure these will be beauties but all of them are whether named or not.

Hey Dave,
If I were you and I wanted to make a bigger impact the first year of bloom I'd plant the irises about 2 ft apart. If I wasn't too concerend about it then I'd plant them about 3 ft apart so I would not have to thin or transplant them as soon. It will work just about however you want to do it.

Best advice I can give you while planting your irises is to make sure that you do not plant them too deep. DO NOT COVER the rhizome with dirt. Just press it down or pull the dirt around it up about 1/2 way. Let the sunshine reach the rhizome and it will grow new roots to anchor it with.

I'll bring you one of the Basic Iris Culture Booklets to help you get started. That way you can read up and figure out exactly what you want to do for the garden islands.

Happy Gardening, Marian

A few of my irises before I divided and traded them so much this year.

Thanks to you and the others for your kindness.
It is my hope to have school children to help with this project since our goal for the Garden is education. Any and all advise is great.
We also hope to get a stepping-stone from each campus in the county for some of our walkways. We have added many dump truck loads of sandy loam, compost and wood chips so our project is moving along.
Thanks again for your support.
DD

The beds and pathways are getting ready. Lots of work but the fun part will begin soon.
Thanks to those participating in our project.
DD

It's looking great Dave. I know once you get the irises, daylilies, and other plants in the beds it will be beautiful. I'm glad to see ya'll put up a fence that will keep the animals our of the veggie part of the garden. I wish you guys would come up here and work on my flowerbeds. LOL

Happy Gardening and I can't wait to get some of the irises to you after our next meeting.
Marian