From faithful commentor Satby:
My Iris are blooming but with the rain we’ve been having they aren’t lasting very long. I was taking these in the rain today just so I could enjoy looking at them better before they’re gone.
I’m actually a lazy gardener, so I prefer perennials and things I plant once and then just keep up. After I started to branch out from spring bulbs, bearded iris became my next favorite plants. The variety is amazing, and though the rhizomes can be costly, they multiply. These are mid-season bloomers, and a couple are reblooming, so I’ll have flowers on them again in the fall.
***********
Here in New England, I’ve got two dozen mail-order tomato seedlings waiting and I need to go buy many more bags of potting soil. And while I did get all the annuals safely into the flower beds & planters, I never found the time / energy to finish digging out the weedy mess at the end of my tomato row (driveway extension), so after I’ve finished rootpouching out all the new seedlings I have no idea where I’ll put them…
How are things in your gardens this week?
OzarkHillbilly
Lurvs me some Irises. My son dragged my wife and I to the annual Iris show at the Missouri Botanical Gardens a couple years ago, and of course we bought several types. So far they have been hit and miss. I don’t think any of them have bloomed 2 years in a row, but it is fun to watch them come up every spring and wonder what we are going to see.
Beautiful pics, Satby
Another Holocene Human
Went on a walk. All these prickly pear fruits (exotic from SW but non-invasive) were just sitting there in the street corner, ripe for the taking. So I grabbed a juicy one, it was delicious. Came home, tiny spines in my hands. Hence the name.
Another Holocene Human
Also: ran across my state rep on my walk. Pretty sure he recognized me because he buzzed off really quick. (He’s one of the good ones but I could tell he didn’t want to talk shop.)
raven
Even though she has tons of flowers I gave my wife a bouquet that included iris’s for our anniversary yesterday. She had an all day event and then we went to a big pig roast and pickin party last night so no garden work yesterday.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks, Ozark! I have a few that don’t bloom well, and I discovered that they really mean it when they say let the rhizome tops get some sun. And I’m going to get some Actinovate, it was mentioned last week in connection with tomatoes but someone said it really helped her irises too. They are really sensitive to too much water, but once they establish they’ve been pretty hardy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human: Leave an impression, don’t they?
Another MOBo Garden story: Went with my son, girlfriend and his 4 yr old daughter. While walking thru a display that had some cacti, my saon pointed at them and said to Cora, “Don’t touch those. Very sharp and they will stick you.” Then walked on. 15-20 mins later I noticed she was hiding one of her hands and had a very distressed look on her face. When I asked if there was something wrong she said no but refused to let me see her hand. After much insistent persuasion she finally allowed us to inspect the suddenly shy appendage and of course, she had several spines.
Many tears later and with the application of an herbal salve we got from a vendor, she was better but very muted, and far more educated about the dangers of doing things just because Daddy said “Don’t.” Definitely a granddaughter.of mine.
satby
@Another Holocene Human: I love prickly pear tea (and it makes great margaritas too) but the one time I bought the “despined” fruit I still ended up with itchy stickers in my hands. So that ended that.
They grow wild here in the dunes in Michigan and I was tempted to try growing a few, but the memory of those spines prevents me.
JPL
The pictures are beautiful. I love Irises and wish they would bloom longer. My favorite flower is the calla lily . I have a bed of yellow ones that are just starting to bloom. Each year I divide them and one of these years, the entire bed will be filled.
Since I went to bed early, I want to add my surprise to find out that Beau Biden had died and shed a tear for a person that I have not met but felt I knew .
RIP
JPL
John Kerry was transported to a hospital in Geneva after an accident on his bicycle. Although there is not much information, it appears that he injured his right leg.
“Secretary Kerry suffered an accident while bicycling near Scionzier, France,” John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement. “Paramedics and a physician were on the scene with the Secretary’s motorcade at the time of the accident. ny times
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: I really feel for Joe. I have seen too many people get torn apart by the loss of a child (and came far too close to that terror myself). I know Joe, having been thru this before can handle it, but the pain he must be feeling is still very palpable to me.
Mustang Bobby
Finally getting a little rain in South Florida, but I know we’re in for more. Orchids doing okay, hibiscus blooming as always, and the pollen count must be through the roof because I’m wheezing and hacking and sniffling like an espresso machine.
Valdivia
@JPL:
saw that, I hope he’s ok.
bemused
Garden is tilled but not planted. Friday night went down to mid-30’s, Saturday barely hit 57 deg. We had 33 deg last night and I have no doubt that others in the area, NE MN, went below 30. I’m tired of bringing in hanging plants overnight and antsy to finish up planting.
Full moon on Tues so hopefully it will be safe to get tomato plants in the ground.
satby
I also went to bed last night not hearing the news about Beau Biden. My heart breaks for his father and family.
SiubhanDuinne
@Valdivia:
According to NPR, the leg is broken and Kerry is being flown back to Boston.
Schlemazel
Love that peach colored iris that lead the parade there. We have some blue, some purple and a few yellow that are less than a week from blooming. They are beyond the ‘dead zone’ where the road crew is going to go so they are about all that remains of the flower gardens. Thanks for sharing the photos.
I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child and Joe seems like a guy that wears his emotions on his sleeve so I expect he will be out of sight for a time. Just hope he can find some peace. My wife’s grandmother died in hear early 50’s and then a couple years later their son died in a car accident. Her grandfather was a really great guy but there was always this pain in his eyes. Does not seem fair for someone to lose a spouse and a child.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I think Joe said it best: a time will come that remembering will bring a smile rather than a tear. RIP Beau.
debbie
@satby:
Beautiful irises! Lots of people in my neighborhood have planted them. One person’s got an entire sideyard filled with them, and they’re a real highlight of spring.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: I have to disagree with Joe on that. My sister has been gone 20 years, and I may smile when I think of her, but the smile is always accompanied by a tear. Some pains never go away.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I was at a funeral yesterday for a cousin-in-laws mother. It feels like every funeral is a reliving of ones you’ve gone through before. The singer did “Danny Boy” a cappella (what can I say, we’re Irish and it was written for a dead soldier) and it made me remember my father so sharply it brought tears again.
Edited to add: my dad died in 1989 at 54. So not at all recently.
Another Holocene Human
@satby: I’m going to try again with garden gloves. The spines aren’t inside the fruit.
They sound more accessible than pawpaws (gosh, are there any left? saw a laden tree once in an island in a river about 15 years ago, this was IL or IN not far from Lake Michigan) and certainly more palatable than Osage oranges.
Another Holocene Human
@Mustang Bobby: Dang weather guy said all week that rainy season would start this weekend and we’re still bone dry!
Elmo
@satby:
My mother died at 53 in 1991, and I’m right there with you.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human: Paw paws are everywhere here in the Ozarks. I have tried handling prickly pear with gloves and still got a few spines…. Still haven’t figured that one out. The surest way to avoid them (or so I’ve read) is to burn them off.
Another Holocene Human
@JPL: What??? Reading the CNN article now. Heartbreaking. Can’t imagine the pain that family is going through.
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: Are they good? I still remember my grandmother singing about “picking all the paw paws”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess it varies, memories of my parents always bring a smile now. Dad’s been gone 33 years, mom’s been gone 27.
satby
@Another Holocene Human: They’re supposed to taste like custard or bananas. I haven’t tried them though.
And I had used gloves on the prickly pears too, still got stuck. The amount of juice from each made about a cup of tea, so it seemed like way too much effort for the amount of reward. Probably why the juice is so expensive.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human: No, the spines are horrible ;-) Actually, I have never eaten the fruit as my timing has always been a little off, but I have eaten nopales in Mexico and found them to be pretty good tho some would not like the texture.
redshirt
My “garden” consists of transplanted balsam firs. I take them from deep in the woods and plant them in a line at the front of my house – with the long term plan to create a fence of firs. The best kind of fence.
But boy is it hard work. Digging them out the ground is torturous. And digging a bed for them is torturous. All digging is torturous here.
I made my first attempt last year, and the trees are all looking healthy and great. So I moved about twenty trees in the past few weeks, but I’m not sure yet most of them will make it. The transfer process must be very stressful for them.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yes, it does. My mother died in ’06 at the age of 78, my father in ’10 at 87. Both lived long, full lives and died after lengthy illnesses (my mother in and out of ICUs for 3 months after a bypass, my father from Alzheimers) so their passing was as much relief as sorrow. My sis was 42 and just dropped dead, literally, while heading out the door for med testing of a sudden onset of shortness of breath. She was also the sibling with whom I was closest.
Her boyfriend described her best: “She was a force of nature, like a tornado or a hurricane.”
scav
@BillinGlendaleCA: There’s a massive amount in variation, both in how and in how long people grieve and the waves of it. I hope all the Bidens get the luxury of grieving in their own way, despite being in the public and media eye. It’s hard enough without juggling that extralarge barrage of expectations.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human: Damn, my brain did a major fart there, I saw p** p*** and filled in ‘*rickly *ear’. Yes, paw paws are good, but too rich for my tastes.
satby
And in happier news, our fundraiser for Belle has almost met the goal, and stands at a level where her heart worm treatment can begin this week.
Thanks to Anne Laurie and Betty Cracker, who really helped us promote it! And to all the Juicers who help stepped in financially to save this sweet neglected dog. She is still very debilitated, and treatment will be a risk, but she will at least know love, gentle caring treatment, and have a shot at a happy life when she was literally dying only days ago. Joy will be arranging her care long distance, with her parents pressed into service as local agents in AL.
The snarling mass of vitriolic jackals who really love animals strike again! Well done!
jharp
Off subject. Way off. But felt this needed to be seen. In comments at thegatewaypundit.com.
Someone needs to do a screenshot. And 5 “likes” Holy fuck.
On the death of Beau Biden.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/05/joe-bidens-son-beau-biden-dies-of-brain-cancer/
crackerjack • 9 hours ago
“No sympathy for the devil here. How many parents have watched their children denied cancer medication and treatment because of the monstrous healthcare dictated to us illegally by these Godless pigs like biden? Did his kid do without? Skin for skin and flesh for flesh, in their own measure shall they also suffer by a greater judgement than mine. The same for the clintons, obamas, pelosi, all of them need and deserve to suffer the same loss and pain as us. As the Benghazi victims parents suffered, as real Americans children suffer. To pretend these pigs are as human as us is a lie! No sympathy for the devil here.”
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WereBear
I adore irises. When planted with good drainage, they go nuts.
So sorry about Beau.
mai naem mobile
Why would you fly back to Boston for treatment if you’re in Switzerland? Its not like Switzerland is third world medical care. I hope its not more than a femur fracture which is bad.
Gimlet
@jharp: And Dick Cheney lives!!!1!
Amir Khalid
@mai naem mobile:
Well, Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in the world. Emergency medical care there must cost an arm and a leg. That is, if you’re a foreigner and must pay full price. Whereas Kerry’s care in America would be provided by Uncle Sam.
satby
@jharp: They’re vile people, but we already knew that. Ignore them.They carry the seeds of their own irrelevance. Not all people who might agree ideologically will be comfortable with the nastiness about a grieving family.
The priest at the funeral yesterday was a super conservative (and young!) who actually started his eulogy by lecturing people on not chewing gum in church, barely mentioned the deceased in a long tirade about how only baptism “in the true church” is the way to heaven, quoted the old Nazi youth pope 3 times and the new one not at all, and finished up by lecturing people about who could take communion before he stated that part of the service. My sister, who is as holy roller (Catholic version) as they come was so offended she refused to go up to communion because she didn’t want to receive it from “such a hateful man”. Congrats “Father Phil”, your zeal actually pushed people away.
satby
@mai naem mobile: Besides, wouldn’t you want to be home? I doubt they would move him if it was worse.
JPL
@mai naem mobile: The fracture is near the hip that had been replaced. I think he just feels comfortable with the doctor that did the hip replacement.
OzarkHillbilly
@mai naem mobile: American medical insurance is a nightmare for paying for overseas care.
Denali
Love the iris pictures. One of my favorite Georgia O’keeffe painting is her Black Iris. But their blooms do not last long enough.
FlipYrWhig
@jharp: isn’t the answer to how many parents have had their children denied cancer medication under ACA… zero? There’s no health care rationing or “death panels” in there, they realize…
Baud
@mai naem mobile:
According to CNN
Baud
@FlipYrWhig: Applying facts and logic to that rhetoric is a waste of neurons.
PurpleGirl
@jharp: Hey, I thought you can get anything through charity… Why else do I see all those commercials to support St. Jude’s Children Hospital or The Shriners’ medical centers?
/snark because I really think St. Jude’s and The Shriners do good and needed work but even they can’t help all the children who need medical help.
jharp
@FlipYrWhig:
“isn’t the answer to how many parents have had their children denied cancer medication under ACA… zero?”
Not really. It is actually a very significant negative number. Thousands who otherwise would be denied cancer medication pre ObamaCare are now getting life saving treatment.
SuperHrefna
Beautiful irises, Satby! Just lovely. I used to have some nice irises, but the deer ate them. This year someone gave me a clump of irses she’d divided from her iris bed and so I’ve planted them in my garden, now I’m waiting to see if they will be deer chow too :-)
SuperHrefna
@satby: Thanks for the reminder! I just added my little bit to the pot. Hope the heart worm treatment goes well.
scav
@jharp: Ahhh, but all the ‘real’ American kids are the dead ones, those now receiving health care are necessarily non-Americans. There is apparently a fixed and finite amount of cancer medication in the world, a amount precisely matching and in the pre-existing system apparently delivered exactly to only those few deserving American kids. And now it’s apparently being delivered willy- nilly to the undeserving.
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
good to hear that he’s going back home. Speedy recovery for him, his been amazing with the Iran Talks.
bemused
@jharp:
That didn’t take long. You just know rightwingers will come up excuses to be unchristian and hateful toward liberals. It’s just a matter how low will they go, a competition in vileness.
satby
@SuperHrefna: Every single bit helps!
Phylllis
@jharp: Probably wrote that before laying out his/her outfit for church this morning.
raven
@satby: Yay, we hit it!
mai naem mobile
I know this is.classless but I’m pretty sure I’m going to say something similar when Dick Cheney dies. Possibly if Liz Cheney is outlived by her dad. I sincerely believe Dick Cheney is an evil POS who has caused completely unnecessary incalculable grief around the world. Dubbya was/is just a stupid stupid lazy alcoholic vain man with daddy issues.
MomSense
@raven:
Yes!! Go Belle go!
Tommy
@satby: Just gave a couple bucks. So happy to see the support here. We can do good things if we just try a little. And people here try more than a little.
HRA
@jharp:
I have seen the very same exact comment in other posts for a long time. Can I say troll?
Marvel
Thanks for the wonderful lilies Satby — such lush and lovely flowers!
The Willamette Valley’s warming up nicely (altho’ there’s some cooling and a few showers predicted in the next few days) — time to swap out the flannel sheets.
It’s a dang-busy garden this year and so far, all the fruits/veggies are growing well: apples, artichokes, asparagus, beans, beets, carrots, blueberries, chives, corn, cucumbers, dock, garlic, kale, lettuce, onions, oregano, parsley, pears, peas, peppers (hot & sweet), plums, potatoes, rosemary, sage, sorrel, spinach, squash (summer), strawberries, thyme, tomatoes. We’re done planting/sowing until June/July when we’ll start the Fall/Winter garden. I (and my aching back) wish we could rest until then, but as well as the fruits, veggies & herbs are doing, the weeds & bugs are doing even better.
SuperHrefna
I’m feeling so happy this morning – I’ve planted my seedlings before this afternoon’s rain, I have a braided loaf of bread rising, and a cat on my lap. This is definitely the nicest morning I’ve had in a while, I’m going to savor it.
SuperHrefna
@Marvel: Your garden sounds like heaven! Mine has a horrible infestation of leaf chafers, which I’ve just had to change up my spray in the hopes of saving my witch hazel and favorite dog rose, two plants which the chafers find extra yummy. We were using a nice gentle three in one spray from bonide but after several weeks’ spraying with that just led to highly amused chafers, we broke out the malathion this week. Fingers crossed!
Tommy
@Marvel: Shit that is a lot of a garden. I can’t even wrap my mind around all that produce. I am kind of new to gardens. Only had one for four years. I keep each year taking back more of my yard for a garden. I wonder how much I can take before the people around me get pissed.
satby
@raven: Yeah! And then Tommy pushed us a bit beyond. I sent out a thank you to everyone in an update and was just coming here to do that same!
I’ve never seen this dog except in pictures (and how sad are those?) but I’m so happy to know that she will know kindness where she’s clearly only known suffering before. All due to Joy and you guys!
Thanks is barely adequate.
satby
@SuperHrefna: That’s wonderful, and you’ve earned it! Enjoy!
Riley's enabler
Watching my yards drain after last night’s rains. Bit of a kerfuffle when our subdivision was briefly cut off from the one road in or out by rising waters, but the rains stopped and the waters are receding in that area. Looks like the Brazos will crest early tomorrow just below 50′, which means our levees will hold and other than our lacrosse fields being flooded, no housed will have water. Whew. So far, a bit cloudy but no rain predicted today. Whew.
SuperHrefna
@satby: And soon I’m going to have a bath with my yummy rose scented soap! It just gets better and better.
raven
Here’s a shot of the foundation/basement of the addition from the garden.
SuperHrefna
@Riley’s enabler: I’m glad you are safe, what a nail biter!
pamelabrown53
@raven:
Your new addition, in fact your whole house and grounds, illustrates that you and “your bride” have spent beaucoup time and effort to create a personal paradise. Are you worried about guests that don’t want to leave?
Tommy
@Riley’s enabler: Seems parts of our nation is getting a lot of rain. I think in southern Illinois we got six inches in the past few days. I had to go out and reset my sump pump many times. I don’t have a sidewalk outside my house. A drainage ditch. I have a foot of water. The guy down from me that doesn’t care for his yard. Two plus.
raven
@pamelabrown53: I don’t think anyone will come to visit anyway.
satby
@SuperHrefna: :0
satby
@raven: Finish that addition and you could be surprised ;)
scav
@Tommy: I and assembled loosely tied cohorts somehow managed rain every day in the high desert near Bishop CA last weekendish. And now it’s dripping and cold in Chicago, although far less soggily than your end of the state.
SuperHrefna
@satby: Oh yeah! It looks so idyllic Raven, even though it isn’t finished yet. How can a building site look so peaceful? I think you and your bride will be thronged.
raven
@SuperHrefna: Maybe because it has progressed
at a glacial pace?
Cckids
@raven: Holy smokes, that is beautiful! With all the flowers, it’s like a little extension into paradise. Is the future view always so pretty?