CABIN FEVER

I already have a small list of iris I am waiting to order from Blue J in 2011. Of course once they show their new additions for 2011 my list may change. Ordering from them can be like a horse race! Anyone else this crazy?? Did I mention my tentative list for Mid-America????

I have no more room, no more room, no more room.

K

Sounds like you need to move to a bigger property! I know, impractical. That is what I did 5 years ago, because I just couldn't stand being told I didn't have any more room! So I bought a place with 3 wide open acres (all heavy clay!), but each bed I make, means I can buy more, and it will take me a LONG time to fill it all up. But I'm trying! Another thing you might try is looking around at your neighbors. A friend of mine has "taken over" her neighbors backyards on both sides. They are older than she is, and she takes care of mowing the grass in return for letter her make more flower beds! She is crazier than me! Good luck!

Sue - Kentucky

I have no more room either but mostly that was because I simply went nuts last summer and just bought, bought and bought. I guess I will just be happy with all the new stuff and hope it mostly blooms.

I have already been going through pics at the nurseries online picking! I can hardly wait until next spring...I get it bad in the winter!
deb

Everyone with 'no room'--widen your beds if you can.

I already did the widening and enlarging thing. No more room.

We are trying to cut back, however we are older.

Hello, everyone ...finally a beautiful day,no wind, sunshine...so I finished off some beds with more mulch...salt hay, resists rotting...trimmed off the dead brown stuff from irises. Did someone mention CABIN FEVER? Big time. Catalogs coming in daily, and even though we shouldnt even be entertaining the thought, the wet corner of our back yard is SCREAMING for a gazebo. SO we are
collecting quotes, thinking about what we are willing to do without in order to be able to afford this (I am a nurse...overtime, no vacations, who needs more clothes? not me) Tried a tree in this spot some time back...didnt make it...just as well, dont want the shade, since we are growers of flowers and vegetables...anyway, for anyone who just read this RAMBLE, thank you for listening , and if you are in need of a ramble back, I promise I will read it and answer. I am new to DG and for that matter, cyberspace altogether. I am going to press the send button. Dont know where its going...bye...

Welcome lottabeds. We all get on a ramble occasionally. DG is cheaper than a psychiatrist.

You will love this group. You should also check out Clean and de-clutter. That is a great group also.

IrisMA, I am 68 but so far that has not made me smarter. Yes I should be cutting back but so far, no way. I did promise myself last yer, no more new beds. We will see i that lasts through spring.

We are in the high 60s, low 70s. Not usual but we will take it.

Take care and stay safe, warm and happy. Las Vegas Sharon.

hello wormslovsharon! Glad to know I pressed the right button!

No more room? It could mean favoring the favorites...just as hard! Who can pick? We keep enlarging the beds. Soon any lawn left will just be the paths. Good, less to mow. Goodnight gardeners! Lottabeds

Hey lottabeds! Welcome!

Stick around and we will have you planting irises in the paths.

Feel free to ramble. We all really need to talk this time of year.

I guess it really shows the different climates in NY, when you are out cutting and mulching and we have 2 foot of snow. Are you down near the city?

Sharon, I am 75 & DH 80. He does the heavy work & what he says goes as to beds (not always plants, ho ho). When it comes to pumila seedlings he says plant. I can sneak plants in but we are realistic. Ordered only 7 SDBs last year. I can't believe it myself.

IrisMA, my DH is 77 but he does not garden. He has been ill, irregular heart beast. He now has a pace maker and I think he is on the mend.

He does not garden but he lets me garden. I should explain. He would come out and say why don't you come in. I finally figured out he felt guilty because he was watching sports and I was gardening. So I sat with him one morning and we had a chat about sports and gardening. I told him it was OK if he did not help with gardening. If I needed help, I would come and get him. That little talk made a big difference. I have also learned all I need to know about irrigation and I use a dolly to move heavy things. If things are to heavy, I call the landscape people's foreman. They are in the neighborhood every day of the week and one of the young guys will come over to help. I am a good tipper so I never have trouble getting someone to help me.

DH is a better gardener than I am. However he learned from his grandmother, worked in the school green house in high school & could grow things on Long Island that would not be tried in my childhood in Wisconsin.

You are blessed to have a gardening partner. God Bless you both.

I second that Sharon. IrisMA is blessed to have a gardening buddy. If it was up to my DH he would just mow them all down and have everything in pastures. LOL Boy did I surprise him starting out real slow with one tiny bed. Then of course that one kept growing, and growing, until now it takes up the entire back yard nearly. Then of course directly behind it there is a strip of about 8 ft of grass the lenght of the yard. Right behind there are long iris beds and daylilies of course. I have completely wrapped one huge flower bed about 5 ft wide all the way around the back, sides, and front yard. You might recall the one in the front is the one that got washed away last year. Well I redid it and so far it's looking "WONDERFUL". All the irises and daylilies look very lush and have multiplied rather nicely. I can't wait to see them in full bloom this spring. I've got paperwhites already blooming in these beds and the daffodils are comping up EVERYWHERE. The daffs usually start blooming in late Jan. early February.

A couple of days ago Geroge and I put up the birdfeeder that sits inside the window up. In about a week there will be hundreds of little golden finches, titmouse, sparrows, red birds, and any other bird that really get hungry visit it. We have counted over 100 birds in it at one time. just all over each other eatting. The thing about it is that it sits inside the house and stays nice and warm from the heat inside the house. So when it's really cold outside the birds will set in it to eat and stay warm. I built it myself about 5 years ago so it's starting to look pretty worn but I still enjoy it. I'll see if I can find a picture of it empty and then one with all the birds in it.

Well shoot I couldn't find the ones with all the birds in the feeder but I did run across these baby Cardinals. Their mother built her nest in one of our tomato plants.

HELLO POLLYK from zone 6A ! I am in Orange county, west of the Hudson River...for a change there was no wind, and with the sun shining it was a pleasure. We are always windy here, as our house sits on top of a hill where a corn field once thrived. We have plenty of irises. Actually, my husband and I have fallen off the edge of reason with regard to daylilies...The hybrids are amazing, some of the flowers resemble stained glass windows. WE have to expand a lot of beds in spring...we just did that with our iris gardens...where is your zone 6A town?

I'm on Lake Ontario, about 50 miles east of Rochester. Near Oswego, if you've ever heard of that. Syracuse is about 30 miles south of us.

How many different varieties of iris and daylilies do you grow?

I assume you've found the daylily forum here too?

Do you get as much snow as Syacuse?

Me, Lucy? We get about twice as much. We're in the snow belt, Syracuse is not. The snow belt goes right under and up the end of Lake Ontario from where we are to just before Watertown. We average 220 inches a year, some years getting up to 300. Go 5 miles south of us and they average around 80. Syracuse averages 115.

Just for comparison Anchorage Alaska averages 114.

Now go about 45 miles east of us, Hooker had 466.9 inches in 1976 to 77 year. Montague in one day had 77 inches. These two towns are on what's called the Tug Hill Plateau, at the base of the Adirondacks. Houses there are commonly two stories, with doors on the second story also.

Weather people were talking about all the snow in Syacuse so I wondered. Glad we no longer have the 2 girls at school in upstate NY & have to worry about them getting home. One of them in eastern WA is having quite a bit of snow this yr which she says is unusual.

This message was edited Dec 14, 2010 12:47 AM

I've heard about that. I guess it's pretty cold there, too.

When my daughter went to med school and dental school, she used to drive home from Buffalo every weekend unless she was in the ER, and that was a horrendous trip. About 150 miles. 4 years of it.

My son Todd and his family moved from Las Vegas to Spokane. He is an Internist there and they love it. Skiing less than an hour away. First time the two girls missed a day of school due to "snow day". Baby Luke, one year old now, has no idea what to think about it. But the dog, a rottweiler, loves to roll in the snow.

Stay warm you lovely people. Las Vegas was 73 degrees today. We are having unusual weather. Phoenix was close to 80 degrees.

First time in 14 years that we've had to turn the furnace on. We're in Cocoa Beach and it's been cold here and very windy. My walking iris were blooming. Don't know what happens if they got hit by frost. We cut the banana stalk and brought it in. Very close to ripe. We covered the key lime tree and the peppers and tomatoes. All the peppers in 5 gallon buckets are sitting in front of the sliders. Getting tired of bringing the orchids in. They don't like to go below 55.
Our living room looks like a nursery. We'll probably be catching lizards for the next few days and putting them back outdoors. Ah the joys of being a snowbird!

We're getting hit pretty good here. You're lucky you're out of it, Mittsy.

I woke up this morning to -13. Sharon, how 'bout some company in Vegas! LOL

My trouble is, I'm hybridizing. That takes even more room. I'm having to replace older varieties with ones I want to try to cross. I've got 100 seeds planted and plan even more crosses next year. Soon I'll have to fill in the pool. By the way, it's currently 78 here. I think I'm in heaven. The irises are actually growing. I was born in Calgary and keep moving south.

Hello PollyK...I know exactly where you are...some family lives inRochester, and also spent lots of time in Oswego in my college days (1970s). I will never forget the quantity of snow I saw up there, halfway up the telephone poles! We have about 25 varieties of iris. Its the daylilies that really have us obsessed. In July when they are blooming bigtime, neighbors can hear us SCREAMING behind our fence, some mornings. Imagine what they must be thinking! The DLs do so well for us in the heavy-ish clay. We grow them starting from single or double fans in some raised beds, and move them out to the borders when they become sizeable. Keep many favorites closest to the house where I can see them from the kitchen window. I scatter vegetables, herbs, and annuals among the beds with the DLs and some of the irises...favorite landscape stylist - Rosalyn Creasy. She is a real artist with the way she can mix textures,shapes,and colors,leaf size, etc. Thank you Lovelyiris, it is so nice to hear about your Texas climate. Sounds like springtime down there. We are between 15 and 28 degrees here lately..

I went to SUNY Oswego late 60s and early 70s. Yes, that would describe Oswego.

25 irises is a good start, LOL. I'm just getting into daylilies.

Rosalind Creasy is great. I love the way she works fruits and vegetables into the landscaping. Another of my favorites was Tasha Tudor for the same reason.

So, I assume your husband loves plants too. My husband is great. He gets up early in the AM and scopes everything out, then drags me around the yard, to look at this and that. He even weeds.

I just found this video on Tasha Tudors garden. I guess it's very unusual to see her garden, as she did not allow pictures to be taken. There is also a pictorial book of her garden by Tovah Martin, that is just lovely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zU-15to8d4

she probably felt that if it were shown in Japan, she would not worry about others wanting to see it.

I think it was put together from her book, without her knowledge. Of course, since I don't speak Japanese.......

I ordered the book many years ago, used from Alibris, and got a signed copy! How lucky was that?

Thanks for sharing the link Polly. I enjoyed watching it greatly. Very beautiful and peaceful.

When I am able, I tune into Dave's garden to catch up on the Iris talk. I especially enjoyed reading this one with info about where you live, your climates, your age, etc. You probably all know each other well, but I do not, and I was wondering if you would mind sharing a bit more about yourselves, like how long you have been gardening, how you got started, how many gardens you have, how many iris you have collected, and other fun info about gardening.

I enjoy talking to gardeners and if I am driving down the road and I see someone who has a big garden in their yard, I usually stop just to talk to them about it. I think it is fun to share with other gardeners. Thanks

I'm a man in a family of women. I have 4 sisters, all with red hair, 4 daughters and one son, 2 with red hair, 5 grand-daughters and 2 grandson's. I have been gardening since I was a child, but I got serious about irises when I got re-married in 1997. When I retire with Parkinson's in 2007, I moved from California to a new house in Arizona. I had a clean slate but adobe clay. I built raised beds and bought a Jack Hammer to break up the clay. I then tossed it in the desert and brought in all new soil. Last year I was on the region 15 trek with over 250 varieties. You can see some of my landscaping in the "Thinking of Spring" thread. Now I'm starting to hybridize and I have 2 that should be good enough to market. It just takes a while to build an inventory. Attached is a picture of part of the clan. I'm the squinting one on the left next to one of my redheaded daugthers.

Thank you Marian, and oh my gosh, Marian, seeds. I will send them out right away.

What a great clan picture, Red! Where in California did you live before moving to Arizona?

Thanks Polly just whenever you get a round to it. No rush or anything whatsoever.

Hey Red, that's a pretty nice family picture you have there. I love all the red haired children and grandbabies. Just an all around beautiful family.

I have a brother that's red headed and an aunt that was red headed. Of course they were and are both know as RED.

Well I've got to get up and go decorate my doll tree so I guess I'll close for now. I'll post some photos on the Christmas decorating link once I get it up and going. That is of course if I can find what I did with the lights to go on it. Got lots of chores I need to do outside while the weather is half way decent too. I'll post more this evening.
God Bless one and all, Love Marian

Here with all the things going on for once in 45 years there will be no tree, have the outside decorated, the mantle, end table the navity and the big santa I made and that will do it for this year.

I enjoy seeing every ones wonderful decorations and wish I had the get and go to do so but not this year,

Hugs to all

D

No get go around here either. The house was such a mess from lack of much cleaning while the gardening was going on that I have been house cleaning these weeks before Christmas. Still not done. Work on alittle here and there. Can't believe its as dusty and messy this year. Never been this bad before. I figgure getting the place clean is all the holiday decoration I am going to get done or want to get done after all this work. Thing is that while I love to work in the garden, I just hate house cleaning. Oh well, its just another thing in life that has to get done.