Laughing Ravens

 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. 

 I have been struggling to figure out how to begin this. What is a long cross? Who cares about weird inter-species cross breeding of irises? Why do I care? And what does this have to do with a TET talk?  Five years ago, when we restarted the garden, I stumbled onto the local rock garden group (NARGS is the national org)... and folks quickly pointed me in the direction of the annual seed exchange . It didnt take five minutes on the SeedEx page before I was lost like a kid in a candy store. I mean, read through the list! It's exhaustive! And someone collected those seeds and donated them to the SeedEx.  Seeds are magical. Every bit of hope and wonder are encapsulated in every single seed. When those seeds have even the tiniest pedigree, there's a story. The seeds came from somewhere. Someone grew them, collected them in the wild, shared them from a family member's garden... on and on. There's a story.  I was hooked. The first year I ordered seeds from NARGS, it was pri...

 Two years ago, we planted our first few iris pseudata... starting with 'Yukiyanagi', 'Alabama Blue Fin' and 'Yarai'. All of them grew so much in the last two years that they have needed to be divided and moved. In 2024, we acquired quite a few more, including the ones in the photos below. 'Alabama Blue Fin' might get the grower-of-the-year award after more than doubling in size in less than a season!   So what's the big deal about iris pseudata? For one thing, it is a species cross (sometimes written SPECX) between iris pseudacorus and iris ensata (images below). From this combination you achieve tremendous vigor from the pseudacorus, and you get color variation and richness from the ensata.   'Ause' ( Carol Warner , R. 2014) SPEC-X (pseudata)   One of the most reliable pseudata/pseudacorus parents is 'Gubijin'. Not a true pseudacorus, with an odd chromosome count of 2n=35. However, it is happy to be the pod parent for nearly all ps...

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...