Re: JIs

    Carolyn S. asked:
 >> Variagated foliage on JI sounds wonderful.  What's the cultivar's name,
 >> who supplies it?

As far as I know it's just a variegated form of the species.  I think it came
from Andre Viette, which is only 35 minutes from here but also does mail
order.  Very dangerous for the pocketbook.  Haven't seen this I. ensata bloom
yet, but that will just be a bonus if it ever happens.  The variegation is
white against a minty greyed green -- looks great with dark purple blooms
nearby (Siberians in pots).

Re acidifying: Compost, of which I make and buy a lot, does help, but it takes
a huge amount of it and peat moss and decayed bark chips and shredded oak
leaves and several seasons of breakdown to get a patch of soil actually acid
here -- so I've also begun scratching a little bit of sulfur into the soil
around the few true acid-lovers in this garden (Virginia sweetspire, Itea
virginica, is another one I'm willing to go to this trouble for).

The path to happiness is to work with the situation and grow things that
are tolerant of lime.  The Siberians don't seem to mind (planted with lots of
peat moss and composted manure), and the tall beardeds thrive.  I can't start
growing acid lovers on any kind of scale, because if there's a drought like
last summer's, then I have to be able to water from the well.  I suppose some
kind of in-line injector thing adding vinegar is always a possibility, but
there's so much dissolved lime in the water that I'd worry about what kind of
precipitate would result -- wouldn't it be a salt?  I never took chemistry.

Nell

P.S. Gentle plea/reminder to everyone: Please sign off all messages with your
name and where you are. It's really hard to begin to 'know' you all without
some clues.
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