Once a Year (craft show) is going on right now in Floresville at the American Legion Hall on 4th ST. It will be open on Thursday and Friday from 11 am until 7 pm; and Saturday from 9 am – 4 pm. I will be having some bare root bearded iris (blue and dark purple), some potted iris, some potted daylilies, potted red spider lilies, and some freesias. I will be there on Saturday from 11 am until 4pm if you have anyquestions on your plants.
In addition to my plants, there are tons of handmade Christmas ornaments, homemade food stuffs (peanut brittle, breads, pies, cobblers, candies, and vinegars), handmade jewelery, and lots of woodworking items. It is fun just to come through to see all the creativiness within our community. So stop by and see all the great items and talk with some neighbors and friends that you meet there.
Just like in the garden when we use the fall and winter months to update and re-do our gardens. JD2 Ranch, Inc. will be re-doing our website and blogs. I will be putting up weekly blogs on the blog, and we will be completely changing our store front. Look for our new website next spring. In the meantime, check our blogs periodically to see new ideas and more garden information.
On a gardening note, the excessive heat and drought (which are now hopefully long gone) has given us a chance to evaluate all of our plants (not just our daylilies and iris), and we will be making some garden changes. Yes, I seem to be constantly moving gardens around and trying different things. I will keep you updated on all those happenings as we go through the fall and winter months.
For now, I am cleaning up the gardens and making plans on which plants to move where, and how to condense ro combine some of my ideas.
Last week we actually got about an inch of rain. To my friends in California where we came from, that sounds like a lot in one sitting. To my friends here in south Texas in one of the worst droughts and history making heat waves, it is a blessing. We are at least 60% below normal for rainfall this year (after about 75% below normal last year) and we have already had 34 days of over 100 degree weather this year (our normal for the entire year is 9 days) and we haven’t even started August which is typically our hottest month. This year is anything but a normal south Texas year for growing things.
Now for the gardening aspect of this blog. Last night I started watering again, and I was taking a good look at my plants. My bearded iris are hanging in there. They don’t look real pretty, but considering they are in full sun with no shade whatever – they are doing fine. Once they are established, bearded iris are drought tolerant. I’ve already lost a couple of crepe myrtles, angels trumpets, and even a salvia. I haven’t trimmed my iris back – I just have too many of them. I will be doing that in late August, when I start to dig some of my bearded iris up and transplant them. August and September are the typical times you transplant bearded iris.
To accomplish transplanting, water your plants 2 – 3 days before hand. Then with a shovel or a garden fork lift the rhizomes. Trim back the leaves to 3 – 4 inches. Break apart the different rhizomes, and let the rhizomes air dry (in the shade) for at least 3 days before replanting them.
To plant them, dig a shallow trench to place the roots in. You can add bone meal to the trench if you want (iris are heavy feeders) and then cover up the roots, but make sure you can still see the top of the rhizomes. Iris do not want to be planted too deep! Water in well for the first week or so.
If you are one of the unlucky gardeners in this awful drought/heat wave, make sure that before you plant your iris in your garden that you have regularly watered the garden. Do not just plant them in a garden that hasn’t been watered for the last several months. The dry soil will not be able to sustain the iris. If you want to plant your iris in pots, then fill your pot half way with potting mix, add a little bone meal, stir it in. The start to place your iris roots in the pot, and fill the potting mix over the roots, again making sure that part of the rhizome stays on top of the soil. Water the pots well for the first couple of weeks and I would keep the pot in the shade if it is still very hot.
This last week we went on a trip and I stopped at Hem Haven Daylilies in Fairhope, Alabama (eastern side of Mobile Bay) owned by John and Nancy Falck. It is always intersting for me to see different operations and how they do things. I would say that Hem Haven Daylilies has about 3,000 – 4,000 daylilies all of which are in pots! They all looked great, even in mid 90’s with lots of hummidity. They are a registered AHS Display garden with specific gardens beds that include: a Stout bed, a historic bed, and a doubles bed. They also have a commercial area off to the side, and another area where they do their hybridizing.
What was amazing to me was that even in their display beds, all their plants were in pots – sunk in the ground. What John did is to “plant” a pot that slightly larger than the one he had his daylily in. Then he would slide his potted daylily into the sunken pot. When I asked him about this, he said that it made things much easier for him when changing plants around and he didn’t really have to “dig” any plants when he wanted to move things. He mainly used 3 gal pots for this. I have seem some similar things done in other home gardens and in some large commercial tree nurseries, but this was the first time it had seen it in the daylily world. It is an interesting concept. I may just try that later on in the fall in one of my demonstration gardens.
In his commercial area, he had all 2 – 3 gallon pots on black landscape fabric. In the hybridizing area which was under shade cloth (so he could work longer in the mornings), he built large wood framed areas that held all of his 3 – 5 gallon pots of registered daylilies which he used in his hybridizing program. John told me that he is halfway through planting his 7,000 seeds this year and that he is using a deeper seed pot this year. Hoping that he will get more of his seedling better rooted before lining them out, hence a better survival rate. He also showed me one of seedling which he planned on introducing this fall. It was a creamy, light pink/yellow that was heavily ruffled and with a lot of substance to the petals. He told me that it would still look as pretty at 6 pm that night, as it did at 11 am when I saw it.
All in all, I had a great time. Of course I always do when I am looking at flowers, especially daylilies and iris. I would recommend seeing Hem Haven Daylilies if you are ever in and around Mobile, Alabama.
I was walking through my garden and I was struck by a number of plants (flowering ones) that were doing quite well during this record breaking heat. My vincas (Nirvana series) are blooming their little heads off, and these were ones that reseeded themselves from last year’s plants. My marigold – actually Jed’s marigold – is getting bigger, with lots of blooms. It is a french marigold, and it’s smell reminds me of one of my favorite Aunts. My gomphora which started from seed – both the light pink and the deep purple. A couple of old fashioned deep purple bearded iris are actualy blooming right now. My lamb’s quarter – it doesn’t flower, but the leaves are green and purple is growing great guns. My esparanza has been blooming since April. It really hasn’t grown much this year, but it has lots of blooms. Of course my bulbine has been a workhorse and continues to be through this heat and drought. In the shade, my duranta is doing well with lots of blooms and my Red flare hibiscus is blooming daily. Yes, I still have daylilies blooming, but not as many as usual.
June is here and with it lots of record setting heat and virtually no rain. This year looks like it will be a record breaking year, but not the good records. Even the weeds are having a tough time this year. The good news is that daylilies and iris are both drought tolerant once they have been established. Your plants may look a little peaked, but they should be able to pull through to the fall when they will rebound nicely. There are a couple of strategies that can help them get through the heat.
The first is to make sure that when you do water, you water deeply. Water once a week and at least an inch water around your plants. If you use drip irrigation so much the better, because you won’t be losing water to wind or evaporation. Also you can help by watering either late in the day or early morning. I prefer late in the afternoon/evening because that way the plants will have all night to soak up the water.
The second thing you can do is to add a 2 – 4” layer of mulch around your plant (but not touching the fans). The mulch will help insulate and keep the plant a little cooler. If you have your plants in pots, move the pots where they can get afternoon shade. Your pots will need more water than your plants in the ground, but again drip irrigation will help.
I also know of a friend who trims his daylilies back to about 6 – 9” in the heat of the summer, so the roots don’t have to support as much top growth. I will be doing this on most of my daylilies to help them get through.
With bearded iris, moving or dividing is done in August and September, at which time you would trim them back before re-planting. If you are keeping your bearded iris in place, you can also go ahead and trim any brown tips off or just cut them back to about 4 – 6 inches now.
JD2 Ranch, Inc.
grower specializing in daylilies, iris, and seasonal cut flowers
Pearl Farmer’s Market UPDATE – June 27, 2009
Due to the extreme heat and drought, we will not be attending the Pearl Farmer’s Market this week. We regret not being there, but know that our customers cannot plant during this heat, and the cut flowers are not up to our standards. We hope to be back when the heat breaks. Until then stay cool, and Happy Gardening. If you have any specific requests, please e-mail me at jonelle@jd2ranch.com or call me at 830 393-5233. Please check out our website: www.jd2ranch.com to see photos of our plants. Our gardening blog will also have additional information on the farmer’s market and on gardening topics.
JD2 Ranch, Inc.
grower specializing in daylilies, iris, and seasonal cut flowers
Pearl Farmer’s Market
June 27, 2009
Our Spring Garden Day was a great success. Thank you to everyone who came down to Floresville. Our cut flowers are continuing with zinnias and sunflowers this week. If you have any specific requests, please e-mail me at jonelle@jd2ranch.com or call me at 830 393-5233. Please check out our website: www.jd2ranch.com to see photos of our plants. Our gardening blog will also have additional information on the farmer’s market and on gardening topics.
Daylilies
Potted: Bitsy, Little Business, Condilla, Royal Palace Prince.
Bare root: Bare root daylilies will be on hold until September. If you would like to request any of our potted daylilies, just give us a call or send an e-mail.
I have been asked about wether you should trim bearded iris back at this time of year. You can trim iris back, but you don’t have to. The rule of thumb is that if your bearded iris look pretty ragged at the tips – from lots of very hot days, 2 months early (south Texas this year) – then yes, you can use a pair of garden shears and trim back your bearded iris leaves. It won’t hurt them, and actually it reduces the amount of leaves that the stressed root system has to support right now in very hot and dry weather. However, if your leaves look fine, then just leave them alone.
You definately want to trim your leaves after you have dug up your bearded iris for dividing and transplanting. Dig you rhizomes up, break them apart, and trim the leaves back to about 4 inches tall. Strip off any yellowed/dead leaves. Let your bearded iris dry out for three days (to let the break heal over) and then replant the rhizome. Remember not to plant too deeply. You want to bea bale to see the top of the rhizome. Water your plants in well afterward. Add some bone meal around your plant.
JD2 Ranch, Inc.
grower specializing in daylilies, iris, and seasonal cut flowers
Pearl Farmer’s Market
June 20, 2009
Our Spring Garden Day was a great success. Thank you to everyone who came down to Floresville. We will be back at the Pearl Farmer’s Market this Saturday. Our cut flowers are beginning to start with zinnias this week. If you have any specific requests, please e-mail me at jonelle@jd2ranch.com or call me at 830 393-5233. Please check out our website: www.jd2ranch.com to see photos of our plants. Our gardening blog will also have additional information on the farmer’s market and on gardening topics.
Daylilies
Potted: Bitsy, Chorus Line, Little Business, Winsome Lady, Fairy Tale Pink, our potted daylilies are beginning to bloom now.
Bare root: Bare root daylilies will be on hold until September. If you would like to request any of our potted daylilies, just give us a call or send an e-mail.
