Monday, April 19, 2010

Blooming In Our Garden 04/19/10


Dorothy Frances Gurney
1858 - 1932


Wise Words


I’m so very happy things are starting to grow and bloom in the garden. Nothing makes me feel more alive than to walking among so many beautiful bright colors. In our garden we don’t really tend to have much of a color scheme going on. As a matter of fact, for the most part it looks like a kaleidoscope threw up in it, but Jamie and I like it that way. While we don’t try to place “complementary colors” beside each other we are learning the importance of large patches of color for impact and we are working on that.

Lutea


Jamie and I are very fond of Irises and they tend to steal the show when they start blooming in the spring. We currently have 55 different irises, 35 of which are bearded. We know the names of all them with the exception of 2 or 3. When Jamie and I first started the garden we cataloged every single plant that went into it and have continued to do it to this day. The original reason we did it was to make certain we didn’t buy the same daylily twice. Now, I’m glad we did because it’s a handy reference list when I can’t remember the name of something.

Some of the irises are looking a little poorly this year and I’m not certain why. Maybe it was the cold winter or maybe they have some type of bug. I’ll have to do some research and see what I come up with as the answer. Here are a few that are blooming this week.


'Clarence'

Clarence


'Beverly Sills'

Beverly Sills


'In Your Dreams'

In Your Dreams


'Invitaion'

Invitation


'Sugar Blues'

Sugar Blues


This is an Unknown that came from an online friend.

Polly's Blue


'Canned Heat'

Canned Heat


'Point In Time'

Point in Time


Now this particular iris is not one from our garden. Our friend Carol was up for the weekend and we went to visit Jasmine Hill Garden to see the spring flowers. If any of you know what it is I would positively love to know the name? Better yet, if you happen to have it I would love even better to have a fan or two! No, I’m not too proud to ask or too shy for that matter. If you have it, I’m certain we could do some horse trading.:-)

Jasmine Hill Unknown


Okay, so now I have another question for you. When is a rose not a rose? Give up? When it’s an azalea! In February of 2008 Jan at Always Growing did a post on this plant and Jamie and I both just fell in love with it. I love Jan’s blog, she has a knack for finding the most interesting plants and we have several in our garden that are there because we saw them on her blog. If you’ve never been to her blog pop in and tell her hello. Without that post neither we nor our friend Carol would have this beautiful plant in our garden.

'Amelia Rose'

Amelia Rose


Isn’t it just gorgeous? We bought a second one that we are training to grow into a tree. It’ will take a few years but it’ll get there eventually.

Amelia Rose 2


I’ll leave you with this picture of ‘Trouper Orange’. I hope this post finds you well, happy and loving every minute you spend in the garden.

Trouper Orange

27 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

The kaleidoscope of color in your garden is very exciting to me. That azalea that has a rose-looking blossom is great and that coppery looking iris is to die for. Yummmy color and form in your garden.

Randy Emmitt said...

Randy and Jamie,
It is hard to believe that Ameila Rose is an azalea, never seen anything like it. Will have to look for it. Enjoyed this posting and all your irises. BTW my grandfather kept something like 300 different bearded irises.

Randy said...

Lisa,
It's always good to see you here!

Randy,
I couldn't imagine having that many, but I would love everyone of them!--Randy

Chandramouli S said...

I've been waiting for this post for long! Such a treat to the eyes! Point in Time looks so lovely and unique! The Rose is definitely getting there. To train it into a tree, would you keep a central branch and cut the side shoots? Would that central branch eventually thicken to the likeness of a tree?

Randy said...

Mouli,
That's the plan with the tree. At the largest it will be about seven feet. It should get there in a couple of years. :-)-- Randy

Darla said...

I believe I have the iris you are looking for, it smells like root beer, very old fashion.....go to my archives and click on Iris Name and let me know.

Southern Lady said...

I love the Sugar Blues the best. And that rose looking azalea is beautiful! Carla

Roses and Lilacs said...

I love your description of your random garden color patterns:) Try as I will to group my complimentary colors, it never seems to work out well.

Beverly Sills is one of my favorites and I love those blues.

I've been getting away from iris the last few years. They require constant thinning and fussing with. I used to think they were carefree, guess I just had too many. Then there are the harsh storms we always have at iris time which end with iris blooms down in the mud.
Marnie

tina said...

Kaleidoscope is a perfect color scheme! Your garden is gorgeous all the time. Jan has a great blog and I've often visited it. She does a good job.

Aaerelon said...

You have tonnes of iris varieties! I'm a little jealous...

Les said...

I was not aware that you were blogging again until you kindly left a couple of comments on my blog. I will add you back to my subscription list. I am a sucker for iris as well, and though I have a lot, I only know the name of one.

F Cameron said...

I always enjoy seeing the irises in your garden.

The only thing about visiting other blogs...I start coveting more flowers that I don't have! LOL

Hope you had a great day!

The Redneck Rosarian said...

It was great to meet you guys at the plant sale. You inspired me to buy an iris. "Laced Cotton" Can't wait to see it bloom! - Chris

Wicked Gardener said...

That 'Amelia Rose' is stunning! Must have one!!

Randy said...

Marnie,
As a general rule we usually have to stake the taller ones. For some reason we have shorter flower spikes this year. We haven’t had to start thinning ours out yet, I’m not really certain when you should do it, I’m going to have to do some research.

Tina,
You are right; Jan does a really good job. I’m looking forward to seeing what she finds this year.

Aerelonian,
We don’t have the space for all that we would like to have!

Les,
Good to see you back we always enjoy visits from you. I’m glad we are back on your list. *grin*

Chris,
It was great to meet you too. I’m sorry we didn’t have more time to visit. We were on a tight schedule. I hope you enjoy your new iris. LOL

Hey WG!
Long time no see! We got our Amelia Rose at Lowes last year. Check them out now, they may have them this year too. -- Randy

Unknown said...

And to think that just a short time ago, a tornado destroyed your garden. And look what you have done to get it back to its prestorm glory! You two are magnificent gardeners. And I am so glad to see you back in the blogging world.

sweetbay said...

I love bearded iris and you have some real beauties! You sound much better organized than I am at keeping track of what you have -- I always think I label everything, then when I look 2/3s of the time there is no tag.

Skeeter said...

As I looked at each iris, I would say, that is my favorite! Then on down to find another favorite then another! Gee, they are all so beautiful and to think, you know the names to most of them. Wow, that is impressive. How is your fur baby? We are dog sitting our neighbors baby this week. He is such a snuggle bunny in the bed and our cats are not happy he has moved in with us…

Jan said...

Your garden looks so wonderful. Love the Beverly Sills iris. Thanks for the kind words about my blog. I bought a new plant Saturday that I will be blogging about soon.

Jan
Always Growing

Gail said...

R and J, Your garden looks wonderful...Love the Iris. It's always a treat to see which will be blooming in your garden.

CanadianGardenJoy said...

OK guys ... you have me almost sold on bearded iris .. but I always turn to the siberian ? non-bearded ones ? LOL .. that "Canned Heat" was remarkable I have never seen a red one like THAT !
I love those roses too .. hey .. hope you didn't get hit with any of those wicked storms ?
Your garden looks beautiful : )
Joy

Wayne said...

Canned heat is my favorite too!
The biggest problem I've had with iris is iris borers. Hope that's not your problem.

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

Azaleas grow here, but they are pushing the zone--mostly white to pink to fuchsia--and nowhere near as vibrant as the colors you get in warmer areas (I was bowled over on a visit to DC years and years back how va-va-va-voom azaleas were there as opposed to here!) Also love all your irises. I even have some blooming--they are WAY early this year.

Barbarapc said...

We're weeks away from Iris - so it was a delight to see yours. Trouper Orange is just a stunner....think I'm going to see if it might be hardy for me - it's just gorgeous.

Annie in Austin said...

If we're allowed to vote for a favorite among your iris, Randy - my vote goes to Sugar Blues, too...but they're all beautiful!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Randy said...

Everyone, thank you very much for all the wonderful comments. I've been out of town for a few days and will be leaving again soon. Sorry I haven't been able to reply to each one of you individually.
-- Randy

PS The iris are continuing to bloom and I've been snapping photos when I can. :-)

Marilyn Jones said...

Randy & Jamie, I love iris' and have collected many over the years. However, they don't bloom well where I live now (here in the South). This year we had more cold weather and I was rewarded with lots of blooms. I love it!