Well if I thought the spuria looked good last year...

I walked out in the back this afternoon and was greeted by at least three blooms apiece on stalks where I'd never seen more than one before! And there is a whole 'nother scape ready to burst open. I am awash in giddiness. These are gorgeous glowing things in the early dusk, and they are fully four to five feet tall, healthy as horses.

Whether the difference has been our drought-drought-freeze-flood-freeze-freeze-flood winter, or the fact that they got Buds 'n Blooms both this spring and last, I do not know. But I know they will be getting more Buds n' Blooms. Here's a closeup:

Bookkeeping: Last weekend I planted 10 Siberian iris "Caesar's Brother," 3 asiatic lily "Lollipop" and one lavender calla in the northeast corner of the back bed (a forlorn barren spot by the gate).

A chat with Nelda Moore

This is not so much in the nature of an interview as it is my notes from a chat with wise gardener Nelda Moore, whom I met at the Zilker Garden while she was watering irises. I told her I have some spuria and some mystery iris that don't like to bloom (which I think are bearded) and she gave me advice.

Spuria iris: They like rose food, so just give 'em what I'm giving the roses they're planted with. They go dormant in the heat -- but don't cut the dead foliage till it's completely dead, like in July or August.

Louisiana iris: A row of them were growing in giant soggy buckets there, and Moore said they'd also take to a sunny spot with drip irrigation. Look for blooms in April. Hold a leaf up to the light -- if you see tiny horizontal flecks, looking a lot like the slubs in dupioni silk, it's a Louisiana. No flecks = spuria.

Mystery/bearded iris that aren't blooming: If they're in a big clump, divide them and replant about 12" apart in new soil. They love new soil. Don't plant the rhizomes very deep or they won't bloom. Give them full sun, and also water in some bonemeal every February and September (Valentine's Day and Labor Day is the mnemonic).

Iris reticulata: Not only can they grow in the ground here, they are about the first thing to bloom in spring! Them and grape hyacinths, she said.

My thanks to a lovely lady! She also noted they're having an iris show April 17.

Mini roses, violas, rosemary and fertilizer

Today I redid all our flowerpots on the front and back porches. Amazingly, the garish pinwheel-looking impatiens on the front porch survived for two years, through drought and freezes, until a month or so ago when we had what must have been one freeze too many.

Delicate "Sorbet" violas went into every pot -- the Natural Gardener had an incredibly lovely color for sale this year and I just bought half a flat of it, never mind trying to mix and match colors. There isn't any color of "Sorbet" violas I don't love, but this one is a cream shade with a very delicate feathery thin edge of lavender-blue. I think it must be the one called "Coconut Swirl." Anyway, I just slathered it into every pot; the nursery also was selling some particularly nice "Parade" miniature roses -- perfect hybrid tea form in a pale blush ("Breeze Parade"?) and also a creamy white with a tiny pink tinge to the edges ("Bianca Parade"?), so I mixed those in with a few rosemary sprigs. I'm pretty sure the rosemary won't enjoy the same conditions as the violas and roses, but it's a very tough little plant so we'll see. I'm tired of not having any rosemary to nibble on and cook with, so I will take what I can get.

Then I fertilized all the narcissus and iris. Both the spuria iris I planted and the mystery iris I inherited have come up strong this year, but not a bud scape among them -- I'm hoping the "Buds and Blooms" (aka magical rabbit poo) will fix that. The new Narcissus "Grand Primo" are huge, but only managed a couple of flowers as of yet; the new ones are even larger than the established "Grand Primos." The "Thalia" narcissus came up a little smaller, and the early Louisiana jonquils are just spindly little things ... but with buds! They've never bloomed for me before, so I'm very excited.

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.

Planted crinum 'Bradley'; everything's green

Just now stuck 'Bradley' in the ground, mere moments ago. He's possibly a little too close to the cedar elms, but we'll see what he does. Right now, of course, he only looks like a giant onion with an old, chopped-off six-inch stem coming out the top.

Larry the lemon tree is covered with flowers, the impatiens in the front beds are a blanket of lavender, and all my spuria iris as well as the spurious iris (I inherited at least one mystery iris from the previous homeowners) are huge, green and strappy but show no signs of even considering a flower.

The crape myrtles have all leafed out in the past couple of weeks, as have the cedar elms, Arizona ash (trash) and bur oaks. As for the new daylilies... well, they're not dead yet! And at least one shows new growth. The survivors from last year all look big and fine.

Of note: Absolutely nothing in the main flowerbed is blooming now. The pansies in the pots and the impatiens in the front are blooming their heads off, but I don't have anything colorful going in the perennial bed. A chronological gap to be filled!

Roses sprayed, fertilized

That's Don on the left, with a couple blooms, and High Hopes on the right, blooming more than ever before. This is their first full year in the ground and I think that's the difference. After five years of waiting to find out what High Hopes' flowers looked like (I moved a lot, and these guys stayed in big growers' pots) I am delighted to report that they are perfectly charming -- long, narrow, photogenic peachy-pink buds, opening up to warm peach flowers with a sweet fragrance -- just lovely.


This is the mystery volunteer rose that came up from the rootstock High Hopes left behind (the big pot sat on this spot for nearly a year and roots went down; when I moved the pot, I severed the top of the roots, but this guy came springing up). He's also thrown up some very tall canes, so that matches the Dr Huey diagnosis -- Dr Huey is a climber. Contrary to my belief, though, it's not used as rootstock because it resists disease. It must just be extra vigorous. The photo would bear this out!

Those are my strapping but nonblooming spuria iris to either side of the Doc.

Sprayed with copper soap yesterday and put fertilizer spikes on the arch roses, Kordes Perfecta and all the weaklings along the fence (i.e. everybody except Belinda and McCartney). Shouldn't need to fertilize again until June 16, at which point it'll be interesting to see if the weak links are catching up.

Narcissus bloomed Jan-Feb; Larry blooming

The Grand Primo bloomed healthily from mid-January to mid-February -- I think that's its third year to do so now. It has developed into a thick stand of lush, sturdy green. A few feeble blooms on the Texas Star at the same time.

As of now, in early March, Larry the lemon tree is covered in blooms (a bit early, I think) and bees.

The roses have all leafed out with flushes of healthy, burgundy-colored new growth. With their Rose Hose that I am proud of installing, they get regular measured doses of water right to their roots!

And every bulb in the garden has its greenery up, making mid-March an excellent time to install watering systems or weedcloth or anything else that requires that you know exactly where all your plants are! The schoolhouse lilies, narcissus, spuria iris (they made it!) and daylilies are all fully green right now.

The trees are getting their first sprigs of spring green. And the crape myrtles, as is traditional, look so dead that we are afraid, as we are annually, that this is the year we killed them! But we have faith.

Broad-leafed weeds took over the yard in the last half of February. We didn't do doodly squat in the way of corn gluten prevention or anything, so we deserve what we get. However, we've requested estimates for installing a sprinkler system -- healthy grass will choke out weed growth naturally, or so we hope.

Light freeze. Daffodils returning, pansies exploding

Both the Grand Primo and the Texas Star narcissus have come up for a second year; again, the Star looks spindly and the Primo looks lush and vigorous, but both are about to bloom.

Looks like at least two of the spuria iris and six of the daylilies have made it; I need to begin fertilizing the spuria again as they emerge from dormancy, and probably the same for the daylilies.

Looking around after the recent freezes (moderate one last week, two light ones this weekend), I am glad to see the lemon verbena has squeaked by, the rosemary and roses look great, the schoolhouse lily foliage is undamaged. The ruellia look like hell but they always come back; and the pansies (which I left outside) and violets (which came in) are thriving and blooming their heads off. Probably because they get watered more when I'm worried about them.

I have ordered a Moonstone rose to replace the croaked Tiffany -- nothing against Tiffany and I'd like to find a place for that variety if another opportunity arises. But Moonstone is the kind of rose that is my particular weakness -- a show-quality bloom that is mostly white with a pink edge and looks like a delicate china cup. It's a relatively new variety I had not heard of before and I have high hopes.

Speaking of, Jason and I have found a location to park my rose arch, so the Don Juan and High Hopes from my old condo patio can finally go in the ground. They've held up well, High Hopes particularly, and I look forward to seeing how they do freed from their containers. The bonus of the location is that it will also obscure the view into our yard from the neighbors down the culdesac -- a view that was opened up when we got the trees heavily pruned. Two birds with one stone!

Roses along the fence have put on much new growth in past two weeks. In between the freezes, it's been 70 and sunny, and I've watered them both weekends in advance of the freeze, and they are really responding.

Spuria iris, lemon verbena planted

Yesterday planted six spuria iris along the back of the big bed; supposed to reach 5 ft high -- and not supposed to bloom the first year, so since they are said to bloom Sept-Oct. I think (hope) I have only a year to wait. The instructions say fertilize 'em heavily, stop watering if they go dormant, and they love alkaline clay soil. So bless 'em, they should be happy here.

The varieties are: Protege, Hasarya, Art and Soul, Olinda, Megagold and In Depth.

Also today -- in the hundred-degree heat -- we planted two tiny sprigs of 'Tuscan Blue' rosemary and two good-sized starter lemon verbenas, as a souvenir of the Italy trip. Jason loved the herbal tea we were served at the guest house in Tuscany; our hostess showed him the plant and told us it was called 'lippia,' but struggled to come up with its English equivalent. A little Internet searching after we got home revealed it:

Also purchased yesterday 3 bags of corn gluten. Since we can see weeds going to seed in the yard it's clearly time (also the sign outside theGreat Outdoors said it's 'Corn Gluten Time'!) This will be our first year giving it a try and I don't know if we'll need all three bags.