Planning for spring.

Spring in MA is still a good ways away,but the thoughts seem to gain strength. A first physical job was digging under the snow cover near unprotected beds and finding that on both the grass path and soil of the bed, the snow was granular all the way down and so far no ice was found. Now back to last year's hybridizing notes and plot possible crosses for 2008. This is 'winter fun' even though all plans fizzle. Who needs to ski for fun?

My winter iris chore has been to create a garden journal here on DG and to enter all my irises in it before spring, so that I can put photos of each in as they bloom. The journal is kind of maddening to learn but if you struggle with it for a while you will get it. Then it is a great tool. Mine is open to anyone who wants to look at it. If the journal is too hard the garden diary or blog is easier to use and also helpful.

I like your journal, Betty. I need to catalogue mine better.

I've already been looking at new ones to purchase. I'm in love with a lot of the species and near species ones from Iris Colorado. And I've been looking at Blue J, since they start taking orders January 1st. I see they've raised their prices, darn it all.

I spent a lot of time looking at Ensata this morning, and Joe Pye Weeds Garden. I can't wait to see the new sibs at Joe Pye Weeds Garden, and I see Ensata has some new JIs already.

I am making a wish list, but I won't order anything quite yet. Sorry to hear about Blue J raising its prices. They were very inexpensive before. Schreiners' says it will start taking orders Jan. 1 also. I probably won't order anything until about April but I can window shop and add to my list.

Here spring really begins when the Keppel catalog arrives at the end of Jan.

I hope he has me on his list. I ordered from him last year. I am very fond of Keppel. I do wish he had a web site. But, I guess breeding fabulous iris is enough work for anyone.

I would like an address or e-mail to reach Keppel, so that I can order

Keppel e-mail is plicataman@earthlink.net

or Keith Keppel---P.O. Box 18154--Salem OR 97305

You can not go wrong with Keppel, I love his stuff and some times they may pout a season or two but eventually adapt to the freeze thaw of the spring here and they are proving very fertile with my arilbreds. Just put pots of seeds out in the bed and looking forward to the National in April in Texas, The Ariltrek in New Mexico later in April then shows and regionals in may and all my seedlings just waiting to bloom.
:)
ANita

Well Anita
Did you get ALL THE SEEDS planted? LOL
I still have those iris that you sent me but the daylilies are ALL DONE
Raining again and STAYING inside except for the groc store and pick up meds.
Taking down the tree so the cats will have to stop removing all the ornaments.
Can not wait for April either. First to see your Arils and beds, then PA, NYC, the Spoons maybe the Warners then on to the Nationals:)

Take care and dreaming of crosses for this year.
D

I planted my first Keppels in 2007. I am hoping they will bloom this year. We will see. Mr. Keppel is a pleasure to deal with.

Finally we have the 2007 seeds planted, in their boxes outdoors. This the latest we have done so and just in time as 8" of snow are predicted for tonight. I didn't count garden spaces available before stopping gardening so planning what we can plant will take awhile.Sort of hope the 2008 catalog offerings are not too tempting. I do wish to try Marge's 'Sky's the Limit'.

The temperature is supposed to warm up here next week. So if snow melts more protection for Feb. & March can be added. We can get cold and ice then. We are about 25 miles NE of Boston. Christmas tree is down and branches cut and put over the seedboxes to protect against ice. I am thinking about projects in hybridizing in addition to the lines I am working on for SDBs. There must be several in mind as plants don't always co-operate.

How exciting. I can't wait to see some of the new seedlings, you DG hybridizers come up with.

Oh i am so excited and cant wait till the blooms start a poppin this yr. I finally learned how to make crosses and i cant wait to start playing with that pollen!!

Lisa H.

Hybridizing? Good for you hyer1972. We need new people starting and their ideas. What is your favorite class? Medians here. Now that we have lost people like Lloyd Zurbrigg and Hugh Thurman in the East it is important to have plants develop in different climates.

Well for me my favorite right now is Tall Bearded. I havent grown anything else as of yet but i am always willing to expand!!

That was how I started Lisa but then I had a couple seed pods on some dwarf so I planted them and got seeds from SIGNA and planted them, now I have just a slew of different iris types and looking to do more
You will have a great time and you can not imagine how wonderful it is to see that first baby even if it is a dog.
And do not count out the dogs this guy bloomed horrible the first time and I cringed each time I saw it bloom but on a hunch I crossed it with a very well respective cultivar and got a ton of seeds. You never know

Keith Keppel claims that he does the SDBs to give himselt something to do until TB season & he has put out some nice ones. A lot depends on space especially space to line out good seedlings. I made a couple discards last yr. & will start the line over to get more space. My first try for a red amoena accomplished what I wanted but the plant was so bad I threw it out and started over knowing I was on the right track,just should use different plants. One thing I wish I had done in the beginning was to list the plants I would use which had pollen. Then I would not have to keep rechecking. Of course some only produce pollen in a "good" yr. for that plant. Good luck and you may be surprised to find that you ideas are great and you are better than you think. Look how many choices there are to make. Lucy

Snow off & then we could finish work from the fall. Lucky we did because new snow coming. Not sure about beginning of spring--snowdrops which usually grow under the snow & pop up in Jan. thaw are not there. Late spring this yr.? Who knows? Interesting article on I. pseudacorus, banned in MA, CT seems to allow the hybridized cultivars,But I would bet not near water.

Spring is on the way as the Keppel catalog arrived. Always the first.
Heyer1972: I don't have TB seedlings. But if you would like to try for IBs as well as TBs, I could send you some SDB pollen, if you let me know the colors you want to use. Our SDBs bloom from the first week in May , then for about 3 wks. When are your TBs in bloom? I look for good growth and form, we could see what happens. Lots of hybridizing is in that catagory. Lucy

I hope my Keppel catalog arrives soon! I can't wait to see what's new this year.

Just Got my Keppel Catalog yesterday
Salivation has begun
:)
A

Oregon is one of the last mailed !!! boo hoo...but have seen it...
Just not have it yet, next week Keith said.

Hahahah

you all enjoy and drool

D

With more snow on the ground (just a couple more inches) it's hard to visualize planting spots. but I certainly want a couple of the medians--Lemon Freeze for sure. I TB allowed for me cause of space, might flip a coin. L

Lucky me I still have about 6 more acres to go, but trust me will not plant it as that would be more than I could care for.

I know there are several of Keiths am getting and many of Mid America one of Schreiners and about 15 of Barry's and some of the Spoons...

E

Paul Black sent of disc of their new ones up here. We will probably get to see it at the Region 1 hybridizers meeting in late Feb.

My Keppel cataolg has me dreaming of spring as I look out at my snow-buried gardens. Sigh.

My iris for the first time since 95 is under snow as well. Got Keith's catalog and between painting and his catalog I am enjoying the cold weather.

D

Are you an artist, Dee? I need to find some hobby like that for the winter. I love the iris catalogs, but how many times can I read each one? Unfortunately, I would be starting from zip if I tried painting. I should clean my house, but that doesn't sound like any fun at all!

Not an artist by far. This painting was my living room and halls two colors.

I do tole painting and painted Starship Enterprise on Slate and it did not say the name of the iris on the front and my iris club members all said that must be SE which made me very happy.

I enjoy hand applique and do wall hangings in different iris for gifts or for raffles.

This coming winter I am making a hand appliqued iris bed spread. The center is a big bouquet of iris, then a checker board area and the bottom border is 3 iris then 5 iris and between them are hummingbirds. I know this will take about 2 years to finish. I can not wait to get it done.

D

Well, you sound pretty artistic to me -- especially the Starship Enterprise painting. Painting living room and halls two colors, could be artistic. Depends on the colors and how they were distributed. One of these days I will have to confront my innate fear of sewing. I love to knit, but I am terrified of sewing. Making iris appliques sounds very pleasant.

I love to hand applique. I prefer it to doing quilts by machine. I have two quilts that I need to finish and they are all sewn one is a stack and whack in colors I am not really excited about but it was given half complete so will finish this year and now I can start working on it in Feb since the web page will go up on the 1st and that leaves me Feb and March to work on it at night...Mailing my Nationals registration in today:) got my reservations for the first leg of my nationals trek which I am flying from Portland to Maryland then driving down to Winterberry Iris gardens then back up to Amish Country of PA, the we will fly from Maryland to either San Anto or Austin, do the nationals then explore for three days and then home...

The other quilt is the flowers of bible...

Then I can start my applique iris quilt this winter...

The walls are light and darker sage...

D

Sorry off subject

Feb. & March are planning for spring. We have reg. for AIS & hotel--have to get airline. Snow melting but not all beds are visable.

I better get my AIS Registration and reservations in as well. I would hate to miss it. I hope to meet up with you all there and at the Arilbred Trek in Albuquerque.

Well for once I am on top of the Nationals, hotel reservations, registration for convention, airline tickets, car rental, all taken care.

Will get the new R&I this Sat...

For once I am a little ahead of the game all the way around except now must do really deep spring cleaning, before learning a new program for the webpage...

D

every winter i make a to do list for the iris beds. I also put together a shopping list for all the new tools and soils, fertilizers I need for the upcoming season.

I also have been putting together an excel page with all my iris names, hyb, and year. It will be so nice to have them alphabetized by iris on one page and hybridizer on the other and year on the third.

I start making wish lists as well when the catalogs arrive. So far I have Keppel, Ghios, and Blyths catalogs. I am waiting on Schreiners, Cooleys and Mid-Americas and more.

i always end up trimming my iris foliage in the fall. It keeps the leaf fungus at bay. I make sure to remove any foliage that is infected . I also use super phosphate on my beds. I also am a strong believer in preen because it saves me hours of back breaking crawling around and pulling weeds.

At the moment planning includes hoping some ice patches melt at the end of a couple beds. If it starts to loosen up it can be chopped. Put MDB 'Invisible Ink' there after it had grown in a tub for some yrs. It is tough, but it was last yrs. transplant.