Laughing Ravens

The bees are sleeping late,      curled up in the dahlia blossoms. The blue jays are acting out scenes from West Side Story. The frogs in the pond are silent now,      except at dusk when they ask to be tossed a few jumping worms. The hummingbird has taken flight after weeks of checking with us to see if it was time to go. It's 9am and there are no sounds from the garden      but the dripping of morning dew on the leathery leaves.  I have started the process of reorganizing the iris beds. When I started this crazy thing three years ago, we were just going to grow Siberian irises. The thinking was that the lowest part of the yard (that floods) would be great for them since they want an abundance of water. Turns out that line of thinking is flawed. (insert embarrassed laughter here). It floods during the winter and develops an ice sheet. That isnt what Siberian irises want during the winter. Lost quite a few Iris sanguinea to this flawed ...

  Thursday afternoon, just before shutting down my work computer, I got an email from my arborist. His crew was going to have time to take out a few trees that he had been unable to finish cutting down earlier this year. I thought: fantastic! He let me know the crew would be here at 9am. Okay, I was a little surprised, but still excited.  Six am and the backup beeping of a tractor-trailer outside my bedroom window shocked me awake. Even my neighbor, the former excavator, wouldn't start moving heavy equipment at 6am. Bleary-eyed, I went outside to confirm that this crew was in fact going to repair our little rural road. Today.  Well, that was fine. I needed to head into town to go to the doctor's office and have some blood drawn. Blasted off a little after 7am and arrived a half hour later, none the worse for wear. No one was waiting, so I was quickly called to the front desk. The usual pleasantries were exchanged: name, DOB, referring doctor, was I fasting, etc. The nurse...

crocosmia 'Honey Angels' helenium autumnale     rudbeckia sulphur cosmos seed grown dahlia helenium autumnale  It isn't often I write a post here that's nothing but images... but what the hell. Let's keep it short and simple today. Yellow flowers for the end of August. I'll save my discussion of overwintering this year's propagated shrubs for my next post.  

iris norrisii, (seed from SIGNA seed exchange)   iris domestica, (seed from SIGNA seed exchange) For most gardeners, iris ensata is the last iris to bloom in July.  In our garden, the first iris to bloom is iris reticulata which will often bloom the first week of March. Other than a few days, there has been an iris in bloom every day since early March this year. What I found last year was that iris domestica doesn't even start blooming until August. This year, not only is iris domestica blooming, but there's also iris norrisii blooming.    iris norrisii, (seed from SIGNA seed exchange) Iris norrisii is a wonderful addition to the late summer garden. The flowers are orchid-like in their behavior. What is remarkable is that the blooms open late in the morning, and remain open only for one day. The following day, the petals twist on themselves like a rubberband. Some of these plants might have dozens of blooms per stalk which means over a week of flower...

For the longest time, I wanted to belong. As a little kid, I wanted to be picked for the kickball team.  I wanted my brother David to be able to speak. I wanted friends who were allowed to come over to my house. I wanted to understand why people weren't terrified of crowds. How could they attend a concert and not feel crushed? I wanted to share something deeply personal and not feel like it would be cast aside. I wanted to belong and to be part of something. By the time puberty took over, I was resigned to not-belonging.  I lied and embraced being outside whatever group I wanted to belong to. Building a wall of lies that became thick enough to offer some protection. Too thick too soon, and I didn't hear anyone knocking on the door. Asking to be let in. Asking to come inside... to belong... with me. Through college, I fell from one awkward ladder to the ground, over and over. Eventually, climbing the ladder was abandoned. The view couldn't be that good anyway. One afternoon ...

The 2025 Society for Siberian Iris /SIGNA Joint Convention in Ames, Iowa, was a glorious study in contrasts. As this was my first iris convention, I had no idea what to expect. Driving from Des Moines to Ames I found myself staring out the window, catching sight of Baptisia minor in full bloom along the interstate. Coming from Upstate New York, where the seasons had only recently begun to creep into spring, the weather in Iowa was quite a shock. Apparently, Ames had already experienced multiple days above 90°F and was actually experiencing a cold spell during the convention.  Since I had arrived early, I took advantage of the time before the first garden tour to zip over to the nearby Reiman Gardens. These botanical gardens at Iowa State University were a suggested side-trip for anyone attending from out of town. I was surprised by the glorious Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing at the entrance. Despite being told by the docents that there were hundreds of individual butterflies insi...