Wednesday, March 7, 2012

7 March 2012 Gardening Log

What a perfect early spring day. Temps in the mid sixties, light winds.  I'm back in stride out there!

Yesterday it was a bit nippier but I got some work in, so beds A-2, A-3, C-2  and C-3 are completely cleared of weeds and dead foliage.  Bed F is almost clear.  Bone meal has been spread and worked in around everything in Beds A-2, A-3, B-3 and C-3.

Last year's bloom was disappointing and when I discovered that iris borers had infested almost every one of my hundreds of plants.  Every rhizome was dug up, cut back and soaked in a 10% bleach solution.  Each was then replanted.  There is every indication that all but a few cultivars will survive.  The question remains how this bloom season will be.

I was able to plant some rhizomes in clumps that should mimic natural increase.


I have two areas where Eagle Control (Sutton '88) is planted in clumps like this.  This one in Bed A-3 show how advanced the daffodils are.


Only two rhizomes of Hot Spice (Aitken, '89) survived.  One I sent to David because he expressed an interest. The other, shown here, may not bloom lie it did last year, but it survived!
I used the "Borer Wars" as an excuse to purchase lots of new cultivars as well.  Here is how some of them are doing.   These were ordered form Schreiners:

Beverly Sills (Hager '78) is a Dykes Medal Winner (1985).  I may have this already but it's an early acquisition and I want to make sure I have one that is accurately labeled.  Here is the growth from a single rhizome planted last August.


Another Dykes Medal Winner (2007) is Queen's Circle (Kerr, 2000) is doing beautiful.   


Sea Power (Keppel '98),  Dykes Medal  Winner (2008) is also from Schreiners.  This rhizome is a little less promising.


This clump of Kevin's Theme (Kerr '93) is from Borglum's and doing very nicely!

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