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Growing irises from seed

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Growing irises from seed... sounds like a pretty simple proposition, right? The first question I hear a lot of gardeners ask is will it work? Then someone will often ask: Where do I get iris seeds? Inevitably, the next question is: How soon will they bloom? And oftentimes, the last question, asked with some temerity is: Is it worth it? I'll answer the last question first: Absolutely YES! Growing irises from seed can be as simple as starting many perennial seeds. They prefer a vernalization period, which is really not much more than a technical way of saying that iris seeds need to go through the wet and cold period of winter, before they start to grow in the springtime. You can do this indoors by soaking and rinsing your seeds for up to two weeks, and then refrigerating for up to three months. Or you can follow a simpler approach and plant them into pots before winter sets in. Seeds placed into flats or pots or even module trays before December, then left outdoors through the winte...
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Turning Point

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Ever since I started growing Siberian irises, I have been captivated by the range and intensity of colors possible within the group. There are so many wild, rich, saturated colors available right now. (Ironically, there are fewer and fewer places to buy or even see, Siberian irises, but that is a topic for another post).  Seedling from seed donated by Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks. But it wasn't always this way. In fact, this is a very recent occurrence.  So how did we get here? All the way up into the early 1090's, Siberian irises came in various shades of white, purple, lilac, blue-ish, and (after 'Butter and Sugar' was introduced in 1976) even yellows. Everything changed rapidly after the introduction of a few key irises.  It can't be overstated how one iris introduction (every few decades) can cause dramatic changes for the possibilities of color and form. In 1957 'White Swirl' was introduced by Cassebeer. Now, virtually every Siberian iris in commerce tod...
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Chasing Color

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  Color seems like a simple thing, right? A color is a color. Kids know what blue is.  Blue is always blue. There's something very concrete about color. Until it isn't.  As a little kid I learned that color is complex. First through paint, mixed with my fingers, where yellow and green made mucky brown. Then Playdoh taught me that yellow and blue didn't make green... but more of a vomit color. This was not looking good for my little color wheel. (I went looking for photos on the intertubes that would illustrate my childhood frustration, but apparently Playdoh has changed to remedy that frustration, so that now the colors do blend together according to the color wheel... but they sure didn't in the 1970's. Also of note in my search were the number of sites which offered homemade versions of Playdoh because apparently that's a thing.) At the same time, I was trying to understand how light changed color. My mom found these educational toys at a garage sale one weeke...
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Distractions vs the Real path

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I've often wondered if I have a collection of odd hobbies and interests or if I am simply distracting myself. Being ruthlessly curious has pros and cons. Knowing that my brain is wired differently is much the same. When I was a kid and would come home from school, it was: Grab a snack, deal with homework, then my time was my own. College messed with the format, but others around me still found time off on the weekends. I always found myself drawn into other projects that consumed my weekends and non-classtime. Eventually, I found clay and the next twenty years vanished in the blink of an eye.  Clay gave my curiosity a place to play and explore, but it also demanded a level of attention that one of my college girlfriends saw as invasive. She referred to clay as my mistress. From her perspective, I could see it. I would get up in the middle of the night, drive half an hour to the studio, just to monitor a kiln. I frequently showed up to our dinner dates with bits of clay stuck to my ...
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Video vs Photos vs Words

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Communicating is a complex thing. Talking is one thing. Dialogue is another. Writing and reading seem much the same; similar but different. You would think that video and photography would be the same sort of deal. Not yet, at least not for me. I've been taking photographs since I acquired my first little Instamatic that took 126 film cartridges, had no focus or shutter control. It was the epitome of a camera for the proletariat.  Until I started writing this post, I never really knew how this camera came into my hands. As I went through my dad's old scanned files, I found a photo of him using it. Obviously pre-dates his using the Pentax 35mm which I think my mom gave him as their first anniversary present.   image from ebay.com My dad, on his honeymoon in 1971, using the Instamatic, that I would inherit 8 years later.   I started working in video when I was a teenager, eventually ending up working with Miami Springs TV production... while simultaneously working for ...
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Walking Around the Garden - First Week of January

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 More than anything, this was just a chance to test out new gear and see how it felt to try to narrate and shoot at the same time. By and large, I am finding the videography part much harder than my usual photography. If I had to guess, I think my attention span is affecting a lot of the process.  Part of what I was testing last week was the new wireless lav mic I picked up after Christmas... which should allow me (and potentially another person in an interview setting) to talk, and have that audio recorded directly to the camera. I know the rest of the world has been doing this for ages... but for me, this is a whole new world. Tons to learn and tons to play with.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on how this video came through for you. I wish that Blogger had a way to store videos without having to go through YouTube, but from what I can tell, that's the only path for videos longer than a minute or two. If you know of other places I could host videos, please let me know....
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Walk In The Garden In The Snow - pre-Christmas 2025

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 This video was a test. It was only a test.  I wanted to see how plugging a lav mic directly into the camera would improve the audio sound. The second thing I was testing was the white balance in snow. Always tough to get right. The last thing I was testing was to figure out the exposure settings when using a variable neutral density filter. The filter turns and cuts off a fair chunk of light... but there's nothing to indicate what amount of light has been cut. So, there's a fair bit of experimentation to find the sweet spot when shooting video.  I hadn't thought about the fact that Blogger limits how large videos can be if they are hosted by Blogger, so this had to be uploaded to YouTube. Sigh. Feels like a klunky workaround.  There's nothing critical being said in the video. No pithy insights. Just me wandering around the snow, trying to test stuff. 
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