Thursday, June 5, 2008

The Rains Came and The Garden Grew!

With the coming of spring, I had settled into a pattern of posting 3 times a week. This seemed reasonable as I was also trying to work in my long neglected gardens, keep some semblance of order to my home and of course read favorite gardens blogs. All worked well for many weeks, except for the house work. But the last couple of weeks my time seems spent on things out of the realm of my control. For that I apologize. Of course the fact that my Internet was out for almost 48 hrs. again did leave me unable to post. It seems lightning struck the tower we get service from. Therefore, this posting will be full of pictures I have been wanting to share. I will try to keep the commentary brief-I promise.

I was able to get most of my containers planted this week in between the rain and storms. I am mostly happy with them, but we shall see how they look when they fill out. I used a new-to-me product in some of the smaller pots. It's called 'Soil Moist' and is granular form. The idea is to mix a bit with your soil and it soaks up water releasing it when the soil starts to dry out. This sounds like a good deal for someone like me who about the 1st of August gets very disillusioned with watering.

The morning after I potted and after a 2 1/2" rain the night before, I went out to see how the containers fared. I came upon this one and thought, "who put ice in my plants?!" Then it dawned on me, these were the granules full of water! So it does work...and it does look like ice.

This week was moving week. I moved all my house plants out. It always feels so good to get them out of the house-less cluttered looking. I know Carol posted about this and how when you bring them in you take a chance of bringing bugs, but they do so well out there during the summer.

Rose posted about all the rain we have had and how much water there is everywhere, but I wanted to show you the 'Wetlands' area I posted about a few months back. I know there were geese and ducks nesting is this area. I hope they are alright.


Update on roof. Attempt #3 at getting the leaked fixed. It helped. Now instead of Niagara Falls, I only have a dripping faucet. They are coming back!


When plant shopping this week, I saw this tree at my favorite garden center. I had no idea what it was and of course forgot to ask, but another blogger(I'm sorry can't remember who) posted a picture of this tree this week and said it was a tulip tree. Anyone know for sure?




Another mystery bulb has bloomed It really is a chocolate color.


My purple iris show up as blue in pictures and the blue one looks purple. This is on a nearly nonexistent stalk.
Roses are blooming! Betty Prior looks like she has 2 different colors, but I'm sure the red ones are from the root stock. Not sure what to do about it though.

This is growth from root stock and a long gone hybrid tea. I posted earlier this year that I had several of these in my gardens and wasn't sure whether I was going to leave or remove them. This was the only one that came back this year...problem solved.


My 'Double Delight' is blooming, but I am going to have to move this one as she is now in a lot of shade.
Martha Stewart's 'Heritage' yesterday.


'Heritage' today!

One last iris picture, I promise!! (well 2 last ones)
This is supposed to be white like the next one. I think it must be cross pollinating with the purple ones.

And if you need rain-give me your zip code and I will try to send you some. Have a good gardening weekend!

18 comments:

Alyssa said...

Sometimes life just throws a whole lot of things at us and the "best laid plans ....". I surely hope that you can get your leaky roof finally fixed! And wouldn't you know it's such a rainy spring! Your pictures are great - I love the roses. I've used Soil Moist over the years and, yes, it works pretty good. I like to squish it between my fingers!! It does feel weird.

We finally got some much needed rain this morning but nothing like that deluge that you did. That picture looks like a big lake!

I don't know what kind of tree that is, but it is very beautiful. I'd like to grow one in my yard . ..

Beth said...

Hi Beckie, such beautiful pictures, you have a lot blooming. Having blogging friends around the country makes watching the weather more interesting--I've been wondering how you fared with all the rain. Thanks for sharing all the pretty flowers.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Love your pictures Beckie. That rose with the two colors looks unusual. I know nothing about roses except how to dead head them. That tree is a tulip poplar. The state tree for IN. We have a small one in our side lot. Our garden could use some of that rain go ahead and send some over. tee hee... I hope they get your leak fixed. Geez. The roof is pretty.

Rose said...

Beckie, Your roses look beautiful! My two knock-out roses are also blooming--that's where I got my new profile photo.
Don't worry about the geese and ducks at the Wetlands--they were all having a fine time swimming yesterday as I drove by. Although if we have any more rain, they might come and swim in my basement or your living room:)
Good luck with your roof; I'm going down now to check the basement floor again.

Laura said...

Beckie-

Glad to hear the company that did your roof is working on the problem; I was thinking about you and Rose the other day when all that rain passed your area.

Your flowers are beautiful- and you can never post too many pictures of Irises as far as I'm concerned!

Hope the roof gets fixed before the next rain comes!

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

It sounds like all the rain is going north & south of us. I hope it lets up a bit by you. I would cut off the part of the Rose that's growing from the rootstock. It will overtake the grafted part that you want. (That happened to one of my mom's Roses.) So you're starting to hybridize Irises? ;^D

Aiyana said...

Your roses are great. I love the Martha Stewart. I wish we could get some of your rain. We really need it. Our Monsoon season is due in a few weeks, and if we're lucky we'll get some rain. The problem is it comes with humidity--something we are not used to. Most folks wouldn't consider 25% humidity very much, but to us, that's miserable!
Aiyana

Cheryl said...

Hi Beckie.....hope that roof is soon sorted.

I have used soil moist for many years and it works quite well. It is off putting when you take the soil out, it feels like giant slugs. I always wear gloves now as my imagination is just too good!!!

The chocolate coloured bloom, could you tell me what it is, if possible, I really like the colour.

It looks like a tulip tree to me, they are beautiful aren't they.

Weather here is back to grey and gloomy.....hope the sun shines on you and dries up all that water.

beckie said...

Alyssa, you are so right about plans, but I guess that is what keeps life interesting. No thanks to the squishing-it feels slimy. Glad you got some rain..need more I'll send you some:)

Beth, Thanks. I didn't realize just how many flowers were blooming to I took the time to check. It is interesting to see how others are faring with the weather. Take good care of yourself.

Lisa, I sure didn't know the tulip poplar was your state tree. I don't remember ever seeing one before. And thanks for naming it. I googled it and it will do well here. Now if I can find one and convince you know who-I'd like to have one. Maybe you'll get that rain today.

Rose, so awful about your basement!! I would gladly have brought my shop vac. I love your rose picture. I went by the wetands today and the water was going down fast.

Laura, thank you. I am really enjoying my flowers this year and enjoying showing them. I'm sure they will keep working on the roof til they get it right.

MMD, thanks for the tip on the roses. I will do that. If only I could hybridize!

Aiyana, sorry 25% humidity sounds great when compared to 80 and 90%. But it's what we get used to. I bet roses are impossible to grow there, too bad. I love them so.

Cheryl, too bad about your icky weather. I think the tree is great. The choc. bloom looks like an iris of some sort on a single stem with no leaves. It really is brown with a yellow center. They were freebies with a plant order on line and came in a little bag that says "triplet lilies" grown in Holland. Hope that helps. If you can't find them I will send you some this fall.

Amy said...

We're having an unusually wet and cold June here, but nothing like what your area is dealing with! I hope they finally get that roof fixed!

Wendy said...

I remember the leaking roof just after the roofers left. Yuk! Took us a while to sort it out too. Good luck. I hope they fix the problem quickly.

Love your pics - the roses are exquisite, iris irresistable, and I love that tulip tree! Happy gardening.

joey said...

Today we had needed rain (and tornado warnings) ... lovely post photos depicting (besides the garden) what a gardener's life is all about ;)

Matron said...

What beautiful flowers! but are you growing any vegetables out there?

Mary said...

28078.

We'll take a few inches or a few drops.

I understand being so busy. It's hard for me to spend any time at all indoors after work. Sometimes I walk inside at 8:45 and then I'm too tired to read blogs or think about posting. Take your time and relax.

Thanks for sharing today. My heart breaks for you, Beckie. Oh, Lord, it does.

Gail said...

There is a lot going on in a garden, blogging and with life in general that makes it hard to feel like we can do it all and do it well, (at least for me...) then along comes a big leaky roof or the ac breaks down...or the computer stops working, and we can forget doing some of the things on our fun list! Anyway, thanks for the photo
of Soil Moist diamonds! I might give it a try....it would sure help out.

The Iris are lovely!

Gail

Carol Michel said...

Nice to get caught up on your garden and thanks for the link.

The tulip tree is the state tree of Indiana, but before you plant one, you should know that it does have some down side. It grows relatively fast (good) but is week wooded (bad) and has a tendency to lose limbs in big storms. It has a nice bloom (good) but they are often nearer the top of the tree where you can't really enjoy them (bad). And the one other bad thing about it is that it is likely to be full of aphids in the summer, and they secrete a sugary sap that gets on anything under the tree, and it causes the tree to drop leaves all summer long.

I don't want to say it is a bad tree to plant, but, give it some thought, there are better trees...

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

Kylee Baumle said...

Hi Beckie! Oh I feel for all of you with too much rain. We've had our share here, too, but nothing like a little bit south of here.

Your "chocolate" flower looks like a Dutch iris to me, maybe 'Bronze Beauty'? I've got a similar one.

Yes, that is a Tulip poplar. We have one that we planted this year that's now doing great. We bought an historic tulip poplar that was an offspring of George Washington's at Mount Vernon. It just didn't grow and after five years of trying to make a go of it, it finally gave up the ghost. But the one we bought at Rural King is growing very fast already this year! I just love their leaf shape. They're native to our area and I saw some with HUGE leaves in Goll Woods just north of here.

I know what you mean about not having time for blogging. I have been falling behind in the last month or so both in posting on my blogs and reading other blogs. It's such a busy time of year! I think the big part of the work end of it is done here, though. WHEW! Now the fun part - maintaining! I just love it from here on out.

You've got some really pretty things, Beckie!

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