Laughing Ravens

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...

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 ...

 This post is meant to be a quick stab at the topic of starting iris seeds. On the surface, this should be straight forward. Stick seeds in dirt, watch them come up, poof! Irises. My first experiments with growing irises from seed started with Siberian iris, 'Caesar's Brother' which had plentiful seeds the year before.   And the truth of the matter is that it is a little bit more complex than that... but not that terribly difficult. The first question is where does one get iris seeds? What sort of iris seeds are you wanting to try to grow? Do you have enough room to grow a lot of plants or just a few? Wait, I thought I said this was going to be simple. Okay, the simplest place to get iris seeds is from your own irises. If bees have pollinated your plants, you'll see lovely swollen seed pods where the flowers used to be. Let those seed pods dry until just before they crack open. Then harvest them (with notes about what the name of the variety you gathered them from [this...

Sino-siberian iris, 'Dotted Line' (Lorena Reid, R. 1991).    Image from Cascadia Iris Gardens I went outside this morning and it wasn't quite 20 ° F. There's no snow on the ground. The weather has been vacillating wildly between above freezing temperatures (usually with dreary skies and rain) and serious cold. So far this winter, it has been fairly mild. While there have been major snowstorms that have occurred near us, we've landed in a weird bubble once again. Once the cold sets in (like today), it doesn't take much for me to wish for the warmer, sloppier weather to return.  I know that the plants I love make use of this cold and snow cover for their dormancy. I try to reassure myself that the newly planted irises wont be damaged by the cold. The blanket of mulch I put down in October should help moderate the wild swings in air temperature. But I wont know until springtime. What makes it difficult? Where did that title come from? Why ask the question in the mi...

And just what are we starting again? Everything, I suppose.  I decided to start writing again, after a lengthy hiatus. In the past, I would write about goings on in the pottery studio or in the photography studio. With both of those endeavors in the rear view mirror now, it felt like a good time to turn my eyes forward to what we are exploring in the garden. I always love reading garden blogs, especially those written by those actually understand the value of good writing. All too often nowadays, "content" boils down to whatever can be monetized or will increase readership. I would wager that a year from now, the majority of those sites will be entirely written by AI. For all I know, it might even result in better writing.  Which begs the question: Why return to writing now? I would argue that it is a sign of defiance. After the election, I fell into an abyss of angst and despair. Rather than give in to the feelings of helplessness and desperation, I thought about the nature ...