Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

T R E 4 5 O N

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Iris, the Rainbow Flower

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Iris, the Rainbow Flower

by | 115 Comments

This post is in: 

From gifted photographer and ever-dependable commentor Ozark Hillbilly:

I love irises. To me they are insanely beautiful.

The one in the top photo was already here when we bought the place. The rest are types I bought at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Iris show and sale back in 2015. I hope they do another, I’d like to get my hands on a few more rare beauties even if I have to take out a 2nd mortgage to pay for them.

***********
My favorite tomato-plant vendor has posted her offerings for next year. I’m considering putting in a severely downscaled order right now, while the memory of this year’s disheartening crop failure is fresh in my mind. But that means I’ll have to stay off *all* the tomato mail-order sites come February, and I’m not sure I have the strength of will to resist…

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  1. 1.

    Debbie (Aussie)

    I think I’m in heaven. I absolutely adore the iris, but I had no idea they came in so many colours. How do I choose a favourite ? They are beautiful, Ozark.

  5. 5.

    Bostonian

    We got our first frosts this week, so the hydrangeas look piteous and the ferns all went brown to the ground. The brambles, however, did not suffer, and we are still producing blackberries and raspberries. I guess my garden is the opposite of yours, because I had a heavy tomato crop this year, but I did not see a single iris bloom despite lots of foliage from German irises and at one time a veritable plague of Siberian irises. I don’t know what to do about that.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Bostonian: My irises come and go. Some I see every year, others,like the white one above, not. Not sure why. The foliage is always there so I’m not worried about the plant.

  15. 15.

    Raven

    Nice man! I’m down watching the sunrise at the beach. The weather is supposed to be great the rest of our stay, now come on fish!

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Suburban Mom: Do you have any idea how sad it is that you are asking for computer advice from a total Luddite such as I?

    SAD!

    I have no idea how the linky button works, just that it does. But no, you do not delete the https. I have no idea what went wrong for you, I have seen it happen to others tho.

  20. 20.

    Ken Shabby

    One aster, two pumpkins and a hell of a lot of leaves that will stay right where they are as winter cover and summer mulch. Many of our gardens are naturalized. Thought about roses thirty years ago and did kids and dogs. Which is …well, votes are out but, at least you can communicate with the latter two.

    I would, however, like to start shooting turkeys with flaming arrows and watch them run around the yard. …

    This ain’t no Disney Show –

    Dogs: Doberman, Doberman and now, caring for my older son’s 14 yr old half wolf, husky belgian blend. I have never seen a dog this special or well trained, gentle, intelligent and capable. Grew up with a boxer. In Georgia, at the time, you let your dogs out. His idea of roaming was to go two doors down and pick a fight with the insane neighbors huge white Malamute. I hated that prick.

    Which one? Yes.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    Several oddball items which caught the eye this past week.

    1) Not the brightest bulbs in the marquee.

    A gang of robbers walk into a shop. The owner asks them to come back later when he has more money, and when they do… Source

    2) Going non-digital.

    Recently, a woman in China was unable to move her fingers after she indulged in a week-long binge of using her cell phone continually. The woman from Changsha in China’s Hunan province had to seek medical treatment before she regained normal movement in her hand, NDTV said, quoting a Shanghaiist report. Source

    3) WWJD? Catch ’em all.

    Yes, the Vatican is now trying to get in touch with millennials by releasing a game called Follow JC Go. As the name suggests, it’s based on Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game that was all the rage back in 2016 (and is still played by diehard fans).

    Rather than chasing after Pikachu and Squirtle, the Vatican version involves collecting saints and other Biblical figures by answering philosophical questions about them. One hypothetical query on the app’s website is “Who said ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’” (Hint: it was Jesus.) Source

  24. 24.

    Ken Shabby

    @NotMax:

    Is this anything like find the pope in the pizza or Guess Who’s Coming to Juvenile Court?

    Throwing out the guess: Mr. Touchdiwn never wore shoes like that so, the games rigged and the misdirection totally unfair. Or, as The Kids says, omg, totes unfair.

  26. 26.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Fabulous. I love Iris too. Why? Because they are so beautiful!

    AL:

    I’m considering putting in a severely downscaled order right now

    You do know you say the same thing every year, right?

  28. 28.

    satby

    Good morning fellow jackals!
    I love iris too; when I moved from Michigassippi I dug up all my bearded iris and replanted most of them here. I’m going to have to divide them after next spring OH, so if you shoot me an email at my store I’ll be happy to share. I’ve overplanted my sunny areas anyway and won’t have room.
    Today it’s raining and that’s supposed to continue all day so no garden activity for me.

  29. 29.

    Kristine

    Beautiful flowers! Thank you, @OzarkHillbilly.

    We have irises in the local state park, but it’s my understanding they’re considered invasives. They’re still beautiful.

    I planted some bulbs last spring. I didn’t expect any blooms, but one did flower, a magenta/lilac/yellow combo. The others just put forth greenery. Hoping they survive the squirrels and bloom next year.

  30. 30.

    Ken Shabby

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Iris and other bulb plants.
    Like trees and seeds, sometimes it’s about storing energy for another run. Like a household budget. A guess. Or, any crop, including wine grapes. Timing and needed frequency/needed items.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:

    Yes, the Vatican is now trying to get in touch with millennials by releasing a game called Follow JC Go.

    The stench of desperation is strong here.

  35. 35.

    Immanentize

    @Ken Shabby:
    It allows you to embed links. So, you push the link button, a box appears, you paste a link into the box (only ONE http though) and they say ok. Write some text, and the link will be imbedded in that text. But do not forget to hit the close link button at the end of the text or you will have an open link. Very bad!! Your link may capture your reply button in addition to the text.

    Here is an example: The weirdest music thing I have seen in a long time — from Russia!

  36. 36.

    Immanentize

    We had a second freeze this week and no amount of sheets could save my last garden plants. I pulled about 40 useful tomatillos for a last batch of salsa verde, a dozen nice sized poblanos, a few anaheims and pimentos. I yanked all the plants and they need to be bagged up, but the Nor’easter kept everyone inside yesterday. Maybe today….

  38. 38.

    Suburban Mom

    @satby: We’re local and never tried to buy online, but you are right that there is no obvious way to do it on the website. They are very accommodating and mailed us our grab bags, so I suspect they might work something out if you called. Sorry if I got the gardeners here excited about the impossible.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: Ah, got it. No, I am not made of that kind of creativity. My mind is too geometric. This winter I am going to put in a water feature or 2, but you look around and all the fountains are either too hokey, too bland, too suburban, or just plain too expensive. I was at a loss. I wanted something unique, different. Then I saw Yugoslavia’s war memorials. EUREKA!

    Good artists borrow.
    Great artists steal.

    I am not saying I am a great artist, not even saying I am an *artist*, but I am so stealing those and building upon them.

    ** I know a lot of artists, have worked with a few on several projects. I love them, but damn… They can be a pain in the ass when it comes to their “art”. I have my creative side and have created a few… things over the years. But when I am done with a piece? I am done with it. I don’t care what happens to it or what people do with it or how they use it. It’s not mine anymore. And I have never met an artist who felt the same way. (I have never met Banksy, so I can’t say, but I get the idea he doesn’t care either, so long as nobody makes money off his stuff)

  41. 41.

    satby

    @Immanentize: I love salsa verde! So much so that I bought some the last time I was grocery shopping and found two unopened ones when I was putting it away. Which is a sign for me to make enchiladas verde.

  44. 44.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: I dated a woman from Brooklyn in the ’80s who was pretty deep into the new vaudeville scene…. Klaus Nomi is the star of that scene.

  53. 53.

    Ken Shabby

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    And I have never met an artist who felt the same way

    Good ones do. Most, anyway. It’s their kids. Most artists are used to their work being treated like a card trick or novelty show – Do it again do it again do it again – or, scorned as witches. It’s an elephant hide profession. For a lot, it’s …a pain to have someone come along and tell you how to do your job, or, make requests or, buy one off the back of the truck or, Yes.

    It’s also a bit like being haunted by a ghost who never tells you when they’ll arrive, why, when they’ll leave and when they’ll be back. The worst of romance.

    Then, there’s Artiss Gilmore, who was an artist on the basketball court.

  54. 54.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    On a morning note of lunacy, I dreamed this young woman told me I had to take all the drugs listed in a brochure and I told her I already did. Then I got mad, called her a fool, and BIT HER ARM. It conclude I’m tired of medical advice.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: In Firefox the link box has the https highlighted. So when I copy/paste, I right click only and it overwrites the original https with the complete address. If I forget and left click before I right click, I get the double https and it’s borked.

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax:
    That was so great. I particularly liked:
    The dog in the bar with the band
    The tractor elopement.

    Thank you, sir.

  57. 57.

    Ken Shabby

    @Immanentize:

    Right?
    Prototyping poor skills on a blog just makes everybody’s day….

    Thanks, man –

    (I had a fun comment for blue linky and everything and the whole thing blew up in my goddamn face and fucked me off. But, the music was Essential)

  58. 58.

    Yutsano

    @OzarkHillbilly: Why does one of the Croatian ones look like the Eye of Sauron? They have this weird anachronistic æsthetic to them. Or maybe it’s me. Also: they must be located in the historically accurate sites, which makes them look even more random…and strangely beautiful.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: I’ll share, will try to remember to take pictures of the process. Even if it’s a total disaster I’ll share. At least folks can have a good laugh at my expense.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Hmmm. On my phone the proffered http has to be deleted by highlighting and backspacing (or just backspacing over it). On my PC I can do what you can (but probably with less panache)

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken Shabby: A buddy of mine is a hell of a flat picker and a fair song writer too. He’s sold a few. Was wandering around Winfield with his guitar looking for some folks to join and, of course, found some. Sat down and started tuning up when somebody suggested they play an old Eagles tune. So Dave jumps into the intro and

    “Whoa! That’s not how it goes.”

    Dave’s response?

    “Fuck you, I wrote this song.”

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Or you could see that dream as proof that cardio rehab is doing wonders for your imagination?

    Like there are faces that beg for punching, there are arms that need biting….

    Which reminds me, when the Immp was a wee babe in arms, Julie loved to nibble/naw on his fat little forearm. He would squee with happy abandon.

  68. 68.

    jeffreyw

    @Ken Shabby:
    In Windows, the pop-up link box will appear with the http:// already present, but selected, i.e. highlighted in blue. Windows, by default, will overwrite selected text with the text you enter. If you inadvertently left click in the box the selection will go away and anything you then paste into the box with a right click will have the http:// in front. If you are pasting a link it will already have the http:// in it so you will end up with two of them and a failed link in your comment.
    Other operating systems may act differently, bottom line: your link will only work with one instance of the http:// present.
    The easiest way to turn a word or phrase into a link is to first write your comment, copy the link into the clipboard, highlight (select) that text in your comment, then click the link button. Right click inside the box, paste the link, then click OK.

  69. 69.

    Immanentize

    Play nice jackals — gotta go motivate (wake up and feed) the young un to finish his applications!

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    Finger taps for everything.

    Fuck that shit. The asshole who invented the touch screen should be shot, set on fire, pissed on, then set on fire again. And I’m only kidding a little bit. ;-)

  72. 72.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Which reminds me, when the Immp was a wee babe in arms, Julie loved to nibble/naw on his fat little forearm. He would squee with happy abandon.

    The woman in my dream did not squee! Actually, she was mostly mad that I called her a fool.

    Nice memory of Immp and Julie. When we dropped our son off at Michigan, it felt about like leaving him at kindergarten, so this stage for us was full of this kind of memory.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @CCL: Ooooo oooo ooo oooo ,,,, I want one of these, and one of these, and one of these…

    A candy store for gardeners. Thanx.

  77. 77.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @jeffreyw: Heh. My wife describes my cooking in glowing terms but I think that has more to do with the fact that she didn’t have to make it then it does with how good things taste.

  78. 78.

    germy

    Ntozake Shange, the author, poet, and playwright of works including For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, has died, she was 70 years old. “Zake was a woman of extravagance and flourish, and she left quickly without suffering,” her sister Ifa Bayeza told the Star Tribune. “It’s a huge loss for the world. I don’t think there’s a day on the planet when there’s not a young woman who discovers herself through the words of my sister.” She had been recovering from several strokes in recent years, before passing away in her sleep on Saturday morning at an assisted living facility in Bowie, Maryland.

  79. 79.

    sylvainsylvain

    Hey AL, I hope you see this…

    I don’t know if it’s feasible in the NE, but the changing climate has changed the growing season down here in OK, enough that I wonder if it would be worth at least thinking about for everyone.

    Preface all this with the acknowledgement that bad weather can sink anybody’s tomato crop. Down here, the people w the most luck the last 2 years have planted way, WAY late. Like mid-July to early August. Used to be that was the hot&dry part of the year, anything you’d put in the ground would just burn up. Now it’s usually June that’s the hottest, while mid to late summer is milder w more rain. Plus we seem to get later frosts. My friends that plant late have all had bumper crops all autumn long, but everyone that plants in the spring has been disappointed 2 or 3 years running.

    Not that the exact dates matter, more the idea of planting some in midsummer, see what happens.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    It’s so much easier

    I use a lot of words to describe it but “easier” is the last word I would ever use. The last time I was in the hospital my wife gave me her ipad to use. She’s lucky she got it back.

  82. 82.

    debbie

    I too love irises, real or painted by Van Gogh. Here, I’ve seen orange and a sort of dusty rose. Another house has a field of irises in the side yard. I was hoping to get a better photo (at the field’s peak bloom) last spring, but they were repaving the road and I saw hardly any blooms. Hope that didn’t kill them off.

  83. 83.

    Immanentize

    @sylvainsylvain:
    I live sorta near where AL does. I think your advice could work, but I had the opposite problem this year — I planted too late. For various life reasons I didn’t get my tomatoes or veggies in until June. It was bad for the plants because they didn’t develop the necessary root systems before they started pushing out fruit. Yellow leaves, more disease, etc. resulted.

    If I learned anything this year it’s plant as early as possible up here to create stable plants that can weather the new weird summers.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: Nice.

    I made a vegetarian w/ white sauce lasagna last night (combined 3 different recipes) that turned out so good I’m having it for breakfast. Was gonna put spinach in it but it had turned so I substituted kale.

    Ummmm… No. Not bad, just doesn’t quite work.

  86. 86.

    danielx

    Not much left of flowers at this point other than mums – it’s like we went from August to November in the last two weeks and skipped right over September and October. Just waiting for at least two reasonably warm and dry days so I can paint recently-installed siding. At least it’s all primed, so I don’t have raw wood exposed to the weather.

    Recently had an almost Cole-like period of minor disasters – minor in that we had the resources to overcome them, which many would not. But still: about a week ago last Wednesday, I’d been thinking about replacing the sliding glass patio door. Twenty-nine years old, leaks air like a sieve and so on and so forth. So I go to pull the door open, and the door handle cracks. Obviously a sign from the vaporous hominoid in the sky, so okay, new door in the offing*. Then I’d been contemplating new tires from my car, pretty worn, winter coming…Friday morning I go out and the driver side rear tire is completely flat. Well, I can take a hint, so news tires, which ain’t cheap. Then Friday evening, the spousal and daughter units inform me that the popsicles in the freezer of the (also) twenty-nine year old refrigerator have thawed out and the freezer isn’t working. Once more, I can take a hint, so we have to scurry like kittens after catnip mice to get a new fridge delivered next day before everything goes bad. But dear sweet home improvement Jeebus, enough with the hints and nudges, please.

    *Door handle snapped completely off yesterday, cutting my hand in the process. You would think they’d be made of something more durable than pot metal, but such is not the case. Le sigh.

  90. 90.

    CCL

    OzarkHillbilly at #74, there used to be a quantity discount that emptied my pocket book. Spend over $30, everything half off kind of thing.

  91. 91.

    donnah

    I love iris, too, not only because they are beautiful and exotic-looking, but because they smell so good. They have a lovely sweet perfume that I bring into my living room every spring.

  92. 92.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: Maybe. One of the recipes called for roasting the veggies so I did that. I like kale chips so I thought it might work with the kale too. Nope. Jeffreyw or Tamara probably could have told me that wouldn’t work.

  93. 93.

    Yutsano

    @OzarkHillbilly: If you use the standard leafy kale…yeah. It does have to be well blanched before you can really layer it in a lasagna. But if you use lacinato kale it only takes a brief blanching and the leaves will go soft and tender without the harsh bite of regular kale. Just my tip there.

    EDIT: May all the gods bless Alain and 4M for their hard work restoring the edit function!

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I like kale, making it tasty is as easy as brussels sprouts. I suspect it’s an acquired taste, one I picked up as a child who was forced to try everything even if I hadn’t liked it the last time I tried it. Possibly the greatest gift I received from my mother, it made me an adventurous eater who travels the world with his mouth.

  95. 95.

    satby

    @danielx: the son that bought my house in Chicago (against my advice because it’s almost 120 years old) called me last weekend to ask how old the furnace was. I put that one in in 1995, so 23 years. The repair was going to cost $2k, and they had paid around $1k last year, so he went with an entirely new furnace and air conditioner, and while they were there they replaced some of the old ductwork. Cost the kid a sizable amount, but they’ll save month to month on the gas bill because he got the highest efficiency one he could.
    He couldn’t say I hadn’t warned him, and they’ve lived there 10 years anyway.

  96. 96.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @CCL: I am fairly immune to that kind of pressure. As I used to tell my ex, “You can’t save money by spending it.”

    @Yutsano: Thanx for the tip. Kale is still fairly new to me so I am still figuring out how to use it.

  99. 99.

    Mike in Oly

    Irises are my favorites too. I have about 150 bearded varieties, most being historics from pre-1960 hybridizing, and a small handful of siberians or other species iris. Wonderful plants. I do the photo posting for the Historic Iris Preservation Society (HIPS) FB page – you can see them there if you are interested. Your first photo of the bi-tone purple is ‘Helen Collingwood’. A classic from 1949.

  100. 100.

    sylvainsylvain

    @Immanentize:
    Just out of curiosity…have your summers been different every year, or just different from when you were younger? Most summers now are hot&dry early (90s up to 100s, starting in May), then around mid-July it’ll drop back down to the low 90s & rain off & on all summer. The unusual part about it is that’s been the summer for the past few years. Consistent. Weird.

  101. 101.

    Denali

    @Ozark Hillbilly,

    The iris photos are georgous! I love iris, but I am not that good at photographing them. I get out my camera, and the wind comes up.

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    @sylvainsylvain:
    Different year to year. The big variable seems to be June. We have had cold,wet, hot, dry June’s in carrying combinations the last eight years (that I recall). It really puts the hurt on my plants. That’s why I need to get the established in May or else!

  104. 104.

    Gelfling 545

    The irises are magnificent.
    I have been unable to get my fall chores done becaise it has, I believe, rained every day in October and looks likely to continue doing so. Bah!

  105. 105.

    StringOnAStick

    It’s been sweet home improvement Jesus here too. This summer saw the new furnace/AC combo, followed by a hail storm that did the roof (2 years in a row) and the deck in a bad way, then we returned from vacation to find the water heater just starting to do that “leak all over the floor, but not in the direction of the drain” thing.

    The roof was replaced last week, and now every bathroom vent pipe makes a loud ticking noise in every breeze above 15 mph (which is the low end here in the wind tunnel on the west side of Denver). The roofer is trying to tell me that the noise was a one-off, then we had some big wind Friday and we needed earplugs to sleep. Any BJ-ites have an idea what the roofers could have changed so dramatically? I can’t got up there; too steep and one knee isn’t in mood, now or ever really.

    I promise to send Alain some photos from our recent trip to Patagonia, hopefully this evening.

  107. 107.

    satby

    @sylvainsylvain: @Immanentize: the problem here in the Midwest has been long spells of heat with night temps staying above 74°. The tomato vines grow well and flower profusely, but the flowers drop without setting fruit in the heat. The humidity was so bad that the lower vines had more root stubs than I’ve ever seen too, it almost looked like a disease but they were just sucking up all the moisture in the air.
    I’m rethinking even bothering with them next year.

  109. 109.

    laura

    It’s the last day for garden sprucing up. Everybody got a dosing of fertilizer in the hope of a final rush of blooms -please fsm, a last round of gardenias!
    Friday is the Dia de los Muertos shindig and this years all about my dad -he gets a solo offrenda in the back yard. I’ll be building around a giant photo 2’x3′ of dad at the wheel of a racing boat he helped return from the Trans Pac. The sun is overhead and the water is just gleaming in the empty Bay and the golden gate bridge looms in the background. Not one single vessel was on the water except the racing boat and pilot as dad’s was the first one allowed in days after 9/11.
    By next Sunday, the part will be in the rear view mirror and I’ll be sowing a cover crop for Spring planting and maybe some salad greens, spinach and peas.

  111. 111.

    Mike in Oly

    @satby: My named stuff gets donated to HIPS for their annual sale (it is open to the public!) but I often do end up with lots of leftovers without names. Would be happy to share them. I’ll try and remember to post next summer when dividing time comes around again.

  112. 112.

    opiejeanne

    Those iris (or is the plural “irises”?) are spectacular. I especially like the peachy one.

    We visited the St Louis Botanical Gardens in 1978 and what a spectacular place it is. The garden sales there must be wonderful. We used to hit the garden sales at UC Riverside when we lived there, and Cal State Fullerton when we lived in Anaheim, and both were excellent.

  113. 113.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: I have one iris right now. Just the one, and it doesn’t bloom every year. The plant itself is pretty, with striped leaves in cream and gray-green.

  114. 114.

    scav

    Slight detour, these are the iris I’ve got available to play with in this garden: Pacific Coast Native Iris (I can peek at the neighbor’s excellent bed of bearded varieties). The Douglas ones here are happily spreading along the back path (blue in our case) and I’m hoping the Oregon / tenax ones will finally have taken enough hold to bloom on the side (they’re unexpectedly creamy).

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