Magical rabbit poo!

Yesterday I secured another bag of Rabbit Hill Farms' Buds and
Blooms. We've used it on our lemon tree for years, but recently I had
some leftovers I needed to use and sprinkled it on the spuria iris --
now blooming for the first time in three years, though that could be
just because they've finally settled in, too.

Anyway, I doused nearly everybody with it -- crapes, roses, spuria
iris, daylilies, narcissus and oxblood lily foliage. Then watered.
We'll see!

Spuria! Blooms on both Hasarya and Protege

That's Hasarya at the top and Protege below. I realize they look nearly the same! I planted other colors but they have not bloomed yet.

The roses are starting to come out, too. That is, Olly is covered in flowers, High Hopes has probably six or seven, Don Juan and McCartney have one each, and there are buds galore. My plan is to hit everybody with some Buds n' Blooms and see where we get!

It's starting to get a bit warm for the pansies. Or perhaps I mean dry. The hose timer's goofed up and nobody's been getting their regular watering. Probably time to replace the timer and maybe buy some impatiens while I'm at it.

Buds on the spuria iris! Yahooooo!

I'm so excited. It's the first time they've budded. When I planted them in 2005, I noted that they were supposed to get heavy fertilization, but then I never fed them. Each year there's been big strappy healthy growth, but no blooms. And to be honest, I thought they were supposed to bloom in fall -- turns out it's mid-April to mid-May. But about three weeks ago when I planted the new daylilies, I gave everybody a heaping helping of Rabbit Hill Farm's "Buds and Blooms" mix, which we think is absolutely magical fairy dust for our lemon tree.

And lo and behold, there are buds. Some of the markers have gotten knocked down over the years, but one that I am sure of with buds is Protege, a purple-gold mix. The others will be a surprise, but no doubt lovely surprises, as all the ones I planted were mixes or solids of blue, gold and purple.

I had nearly given up on them, and all I needed to do was feed them. Dang! Or maybe it was just time; the growing tips do say, "Do not expect peak performance until the third year." It also says I should fertilize them again after the blooms. Also perhaps in the fall. And they may be too close together, as these notes say they "resent" being transplanted!

Pretty much everybody says they need lots of fertilizer, preferably balanced (or high in phosphorus to encourage bloom), and these folks say to fertilize 'em every 2-3 weeks after danger of frost is past.