Iris Has Been Around The Block

This bearded iris (Iris germanica) gets around. Not like it's been sleeping with another, but it has had lots of offspring. It was a quick pickup up a few years ago at our neighborhood bar, or maybe it was a spring plant swap. Someone from the adjacent neighborhood brought it and has not attended since. Planted in the spring, it did bloom the following year.

I occasionally drive through that neighborhood and see two houses where this iris is flourishing in the front yard. I would guess one of those owners gave another some divisions in the past.

Being it is a very good hardy grower, I divided this one twice since, and gave away a few pieces to friends that live in that adjacent neighborhood - at another plant swap - so now it's found in three yards there. Last fall after my last division, I gave some to a neighbor on my street and see it blooming there now. Last week on my way to work, I spotted the same iris growing on another street in my neighborhood, along with some yellow iris. This is becoming an invasion.

Last spring, all bearded iris in the yard bloomed sparingly, and by end of spring, were beginning to die out. Iris borers were the culprits - larvae of an egg-laying moth - that tunneled through the root system, leaving them susceptible to rot. A few doses of nasties this spring at the right time kept them safe. One, my favorite, Clarence [2011.05.06], is going to bloom again, but the plants are small and hope is that they will grow back strong for next year.

I have come to love the color combination on this, even though I don't normally care for severely two tone bearded iris. The deep royal purple and light lavender top give me an urge to reach for a grape Nehi every time it blooms. Not knowing its name, it's the Grape Nehi iris to me. Apparently, there IS a Grape Iris out there, but not as grapey as this one.

I will be ready to give some more away next fall. Grape Nehis all around.

A Patriotic Spring

It's been almost a month since the last post - there is little happening in the garden at this time of year. And, Google dumped me into Google Plus requiring information that screwed up my blog, Blogger profile, settings, and name that I cannot correct. (Was that Wordpress option still open?) This mess also prevented me from commenting on other blogs, (unless authored with my 'new' Google Plus account.)

The back yard looks like the 4th of July - red, white and blue. The white 'snow' azaleas were planted under the magnolia and dogwood when both trees and shrubs were small. I tried moving one two years ago and killed it. The azalea roots are too entangled with the trees.

The red (shocking acid pink) azalea is loud and was here when I bought the house over 20 years ago. Although very popular around town, I would never buy a plant of this color. It looks like my yard is on an LSD trip. Keep it from getting too big and put a white azalea next to it to calm your brain down.

The blue ajuga reptans has never looked so good or thick. It really loves its part shade and dry clay home. A few sprigs were picked up at our neighborhood plant swap two years ago and now, wow.

That barren viburnum is another story for later.

Enjoy the cool colors while the season progresses and while I learn how to restore myself on Google.

Pieris Survives The Graveyard

Another plant given, another plant taken. And, this one survived. Last year a friend requested I pick out one pieris for my yard from three that she had purchased to give away. This was my first introduction to the plant. Not knowing anything about it (nor did my gardening friend) I greedily selected a 'Canadian grown cultivar.'

"Clusters of spring blooms resembling lily of the valley cascade near ends of branches. New spring growth is bright red or pink when emerging. Mature foliage is lustrous dark green. Requires rich acidic soil and ample moisture; protect from hot winds and sun."

None of the plants had any blooms - only colorful labels with colorful descriptions. The back yard is shady on the north side of the wood fence. This is my graveyard of plants, and the graveyard had plots available. To date, this area has killed an aralia, an acanthus, two ferns, a hosta, and a ligularia. (Either a zombie ligularia or acanthus is trying to come back from the dead with a few leaves poking up.)

The little pieris that could, survived the winter and thrived. The thing is a mound of blooms, although a small mound. One thing I will note is that stems supporting the blooms are weak, bending downwards.

I have a bad tendency to plant things too close together, so I have given this little one and the nearby hydrangea and buddleia some space. The tag did not have a size listed, so we assume an eventual 4-5 feet (1.2 - 1.5 meter) adult.

The tag was correct so far. The foliage has been dark green and evergreen, needed in this section of the yard for some winter interest. There is no new growth yet, but I expect those red shoots later. The plant seems comfy in its new home mixing it up with our Virginia clay, and the owner is happy it is surviving. Maybe the graveyard of plants has turned the corner.

Spring Fell From The Sky

You know it's springtime when there is snow on the daffodils. Welcome to the new normal. On Monday March 25, we received the biggest snowfall (or slushfall) of the winter. Alexandria woke up to one and a half inches (4 cm) of wet snow and slushy walks. Added to the previous snowfalls, we received a total of 3-1/2 inches (9 cm) of winter for 2012-13.

Hyacinths were stopped in their tracks, turning purple with cold, shivering under their new white blanket. The white forsythia was almost finished with its song, but was startled. The indoors amaryllis, planted to flower at Christmas, thinks it missed the snow by waiting so long to bloom. Ha! Think again, as it peers out the window at the frosty white covered deck chair.

The groundhog was wrong.

Winter Walk Off

My walk is around a three block radius of my office in historic Old Town Alexandria. A bit of history lesson: Alexandria is on the Potomac River, was settled and became a thriving city in the 1700s through 1800s. It was a shipping (sugar and tobacco) and trading port with refineries and warehouses. It's old city homes reflected the very conservative population, and not the "flamboyant extravagance" found in Savannah and Charleston. Yes, George Washington lived down the road, had an overnight cottage in town, and not only slept here, but shopped and partied here.

This is my walk off, wishfully without sounding like a tourist magazine. Some of the photos were taken on sunny Friday's walk, and the remainder on cloudy rainy today. Frequent walks are taken on lunch hours; the pedestrian scale allows appreciation of details.

View other Winter Walk-offs at A Tidewater Gardener
A few cobblestone alleys like this have houses on them, in addition to the main streets. The several cobblestone alleys and two full cobblestone streets in town are murder to drive on and walk on. I can't imagine riding down in a wood-wheeled vehicle.

Two of the older homes sit across the street from my office. The industrial revolution brought the decoration and style on newer townhomes, but colonial-era buildings like these were simpler. When the street was eventually paved, its level was lowered, partially exposing the stone foundations on these.

How do you like the knockers? Norfolk is not the only place with mermaids.

I like the railing on the entrance of this house, although I don't know if it is original. This is a typical wealthy row house, brick, 3-story, probably 1800-1840. Gas lamps from 1800s are popular around town, running 24/7. I don't know where the gas comes from or who pays.

Hitch up your horse and hop down ...

... and scrape off your boots before coming in.

I call this flag alley because almost everyone displays a flag. These were the working class houses - usually wood, 2-story. These 'shacks' that appear to be falling down fetch about $600,000 on the real estate market.


These are fire marks from insurance / fire companies. They would be placed on your house above the first floor. When your house caught fire, the fire mark would identify that you paid for protection, and what company would be responsible for arriving to fight the fire.

Mostly brick sidewalks - every pattern a 4x8 can make. Women are always getting their heels stuck in between the bricks. Bricks are loose laid, so street trees get some water when it rains.

This poor soul is stuck in a planter surrounded by solid concrete, and probably had a mulch volcano in its younger days.

A cooking equipment store. Window boxes look like Europe. Pots in the summer used to be filled with cooking herbs but have heuchera now.

A view of the top of Second Empire style city hall from my office mens room window - the best view from any toilet in town. This roof top can't be seen well from anywhere on the streets.

City hall is a melange of buildings stuck together. The clock tower reminds me of New Orleans but I don't know why. It would look better with some palms in the foreground.

The back of city hall fronts a square hosting the oldest continuous farmers market in the country. When the fountain and pond are full of water, mallards from the river come up for a swim.

The 'Cherry Blossom' riverboat docked at the Potomac. I don't believe the Potomac historically had riverboats paddling around, but the tourists don't know that.

Old Town is very dog friendly. Many stores and residents put out water bowls in the summer. This station was dedicated to 'Molly,' a retriever I believe, and even has a high drinking fountain for owners!

Butterflies in Winter

In reality, there are no butterflies in winter in Alexandria Virginia. This time of year brings little to write about in the garden blog, so I saved a few items from the past year for times such as this. The critter on the left is a 'Clipper,' native to southeast Asia.

The story started last winter with the seed swap I attended. I signed up for Washington Gardener magazine in order to receive a discount on the admission charge. Washington Gardener was the host and gave discounts for admission to its subscribers.

During the year, the magazine ran a contest with a question that asked, "what plant do you regret adding to your garden and why." Boy did I have a lot of material to consider. My response was, “Kniphofia uvaria - because:
  • bloom time is very short
  • for 11 months of the year, the plant is only an ugly tangled mass of leaves
  • takes up too much space for such a little blooming, messy plant”
Anyway, I won one of the prizes - tickets to the Wings of Fancy living butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens in nearby Wheaton, Maryland.

After being screened to enter the greenhouse, visitors were treated to a thousand butterflies fluttering about on plants, fruit, and people. Some were native, and some were non-native (butterflies not people.) I was itching to try out the video on my new iPad, so I assembled this collection of photos and video.

Some butterflies were shy, while some were quite convivial. If one stood still, they would land on you. I was sorry for the youngsters who were trying in vain to get one to land - we know young kids cannot be still for a moment. I learned a thing or two about butterflies from the exhibit. It seems these butterflies preferred zinnias and 'rotting' fruit, although the fruit looked pretty fresh to me. They had a sweet spot for watermelon and peaches. Blogger reduces the quality of the video, sorry. Some of the distant butterflies come out looking like fuzz - click the YouTube logo and then select a better quality setting. If reading this on an iPad, the video may be missing.

Dido - native to the Amazon & Andes		Red Postman - native to South America
Emerald swallowtail - Malaysia & Indoneasia		Zebra longwing - North-Central-South America
Leopard lacewing - India to S. China		Malabar Tree Nymph from India
Blue morpho - Central & South America		Queen butterfly - North & South America
Julia Heliconian - Brazil to S. United States		Owl butterfly - Central & South America

Where Have I Been

It's been a while, and I almost forgot how to write a post. My blog has taken a back seat to other endeavors over the past few months, one involving gardening. I was recruited last Fall to be the Vice President of Training for our county Master Gardener organization. It is the middle of our training cycle, so time has been spent administering the weekly training programs and attending board meetings. On top of it all, there is a chance of a job change - a big change.

I really miss gardening, and run out of steam at the end of each day. It is February and I hope the seeds can wait or learn to start themselves. Three seed catalogs are on the coffee table screaming to be opened. So this blog post will serve two purposes - to get me to open those catalogs and open the blog to write about them.

Seeds seem to be getting more expensive every year. The Coupon Scoop has a few specials when ordering online for Burpee that I must take advantage of. Their seeds are more expensive than Park, and their selection is worse. This is what entices me for 2013 season - new picks and why I am interested: Merlot Pepper A blocky bell pepper described as sweet, with a reddish purple color. I always grow Karma, and have tried a lot of peppers and posted the results on this blog. This one sounds like something I would like, for the color. Park Seed Pinca Zinnia A double flowered spider zinnia that, according to the catalog (which of course we always believe...) starts out lime-green and ends up rosy pink. I never grew spider zinnias, nor ones that change color. Park Seed Tendersnax Hybrid Carrots "The sweetest juiciest carrot." Sounds like an orange, doesn't it? I have had terrible luck with carrots due to the clay soil here, the borers or worms that eat through them, and the fact that something eats the seedlings before they ever have a chance. I look forward to trying again with a different variety ... and maybe lots o' chemicals. Stokes Seeds Valentino Bush Beans I grew green beans for the first time last year with free seeds from the Seed Exchange I attended. I see beans in my future again, and a farmer's market vendor recommended her favorite, Valentino. I wrote about Contender last year, which were good. Stokes Seeds Marigolds Marigolds conjure up memories of my first trials and tribulations as a gardener, so I avoid them. I am considering the Tiger Eyes minis or some white marigolds from Burpee. Unfortunately, Burpee only sells the bigger size marigolds in white, and I want something smaller. Supersweet 100 Cherry Tomatos I grew Sweet 100 for the past two years. Early blight loved them. This variety claims better resistance. Park Seed Princess Jade Ornamental Millet A hybrid that caught my eye because of the cool looking seed heads. Fragrant dark brown plumes, according to the catalog. Fragrant millet? This I've got to try. Burpee Seeds

December 2012 Flowers In The House

Indoor flowers on the last Monday of the month

There are no indoor bloomers in the December house. I will join in the holiday spirit with some indoor plant material. My Nandina berries played a big part in transforming the basic greens into something seasonal. Boughs and berries were stuffed into the Red Star Beverage box. Berries and cones adorn the usual door wreath with a few red baubles. And simple berries contrast in the mostly white bathroom - (those are not black tiles - green and blue.) That's holly and ivy above the windows with the small but charming tree. Add your indoor holiday flora to other garden bloggers' Flowers In The House at Jane's blog Small But Charming.