OT-Chat: Another flowerbed semi-complete

Trying to figure out where to plant this year's purchases; as usual, I need to hurry and prep some more planting areas.  Managed to re-grade and put sprinklers in one bed (maybe 12' x 18') over the weekend.  Problem is, that bed aleady has one clump of climbing bamboo, a rapidly increasing clump of mexican weeping bamboo, one melianthus major, one "sago palm" (cycad), and six 19-month clumps of Blyth TB's which have been hand-watered so far.  I'll be lucky to squeeze in a dozen new iris around the loose flagstone path I will put in for access (to minimize muddy feet).  So where do the rest of my 40 or so new TB's go?  My foot woke up screaming again this morning, so it may be a week or two before I get back at it.  I can put 6 to 10 iris in another bed with an even larger clump of mexican weeping bamboo, but that bed may be taken over completely in a year or two.

I'll probably have to start culling again next year.  I tend to be very selective, so I'm not quite sure how my collection has grown to nearly 300 TB's and about 40 louisianas, but at least I've been culling my own seedlings ruthlessly.  Only two have made the cut so far, and one of those may go soon (sort of an improved Success Story).  The keeper is a nice dark-topped purple-on-white plicata; I also kept a few rhizomes from the same cross that may or may not have been from the same clump.  All those seedling just sort of grew together, but the foliage on this one was distinctively broad, and a few adjacent rhizomes looked the same.  Wait till next year when (hopefully) they bloom.

Double Click is finally finished, but another stalk may be on the way.  Yaquina Blue is open (my one remaining rhizome, that may help create some garden space).  Champagne Elegance bloomed the other day; a prime candidate for culling.  Mabel Andrews is about to bloom; it probably has the plainest form of any iris in my yard, but I kinda' like it.

John Reeds
San Juan Capistrano, CA (zone 9b)  Get more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com


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