Rainy and Cold in Mendon

Forty-one degrees and raining in Mendon...

It's a wonderful break. Yesterday was dawn to dusk in the garden.  OK, so as far as I know the sun is not up before 10am, but a lot of weeding, photographing and monitoring.  Although the weather report said it would rain today that was no guarantee so I made sure that new plantings and plants not showing growth got some help.  I also spotted the nasty little red lily bugs that have prevented the growth of any asiatic lilies in previous years chowing down. One suggestion on the web was to treat them with a 10% solution of ammonia.  What the heck.  Done.

Today then is devoted to posting some pics and observations that I haven't had a chance to get to. Later I will be out in the garden to capture a picture of Snowy River which has opened.

I will also be printing labels and and preparing to get back in the garden tomorrow, though it will be chillier that yesterday.  There is even a chance that snow will accumulate.  The good news is that temps should be above freezing.  A low of 35° is forecast.

First Iris of the 2012 Season

It's only a bud now, but in a day or two "Snowy River," a Miniature Dwarf Bearded iris will open the 2012 season.  It was a gift from a GRIS member at a meeting in the fall.

New Construction At Diamond Rise

I haven't had enough time to write about my garden because I have been working in it.  I have built a new raised annual bed behind the lean-to in my back yard and install stone edging on bed C-1.

Under construction

New annual raised bed 

Stone border on the uphill side of bed C-1

Then it was on to clumps of tulips bought as a "Darwin hybrid mix."  They are beautiful but about 2/3 of them are pink and the rest are yellow & red bi-colors. Together, not so attractive.  I marked the bi-colors and will move them to their own location at an appropriate time.

Darwin Hybrid Mix

Now that they have opened the clash of colors is more evident.

Spring Bulbs in Bloom

King Alfred type Daffodil

One of a "Mixed Trumpet" daffodil blooms. Note the tiny variety below.

Tulip - Blue Diamond is a "late bloomer" ... but not in 2012!

Another late tulip, "Angelique" is also blooming early this year.

"Brown Sugar" actually tends more toward bronze than this photo shows.

A New Camera - Kodak Z990

Bloom time is here for bulbs and irises and daylilies are around the corner.  It was time for a new Camera.  Again.  My last one just gave up,

I have an Rebel EOS 35mm which has gathered dust since I went digital.  Kodak after Kodak digital cameras have resided here, as I moved slowly from 3 to 14 megapixels.  Being from Rochester, not buying Kodak would be like my Atlantan husband drinking Pepsi.  They became outdated or broken or lost.

30 years ago I bought a cutting edge SLR 35mm camera.  The Canon A-1 was the first with digital display LED display.  Below the picture in the view finder red LEDs displayed 1000 3.5 and I believe M or A.

Wanting to return to an SLR, but this time a digital camera, I started looking.  The Canon Rebel with a 35-80mm zoom was about as cheap as I could go.  If I wanted more features with Canon or Nikon I could pay $2000 or more.  Out of my price range to be sure, but I was willing to save up for a lower level model.

Then I got an offer from Kodak.  20% off all their products, They are phasing out their digital camera production, but promising to continue to offer support and service.  Sad, because they patented the technology, but let it get away from them.  So I started to consider the X990 Max, the top of their line.  Lots of features I liked about the Kodak cameras I have owned and 12 mp.  That's plenty for most of us.  The real selling point was a 30x Optical zoom. That's the equivalent of a 35mm 28-840 zoom!

At $299 it was not they much less than an entry level SLR. So, drop down to the 21x zoom without 1080p video and lose stereo mics and other features with the Z5010, or wait for the SLR.  When I noticed that the Z990 had a electronic viewfinder, which allows the SLR like ability to see the image even in bright sun I knew it was this or an SLR.

When the sale was advertised and the Z990 was now $239 I started shopping in earnest.  An Amozon vendor which allowed me to use my free 2-day shipping, offered the Z990 at $183.  That did it and now it is mine.  And here is one of the first pictures...

Update: 2011 Acquisitions from Schreiner's

Schreiner's is the name that is connected with iris cultivation since 1925. I have many Schreiner cultivars in my garden, but for the fist time I ordered directly from them in 2011.   I will be tracking my purchases from Schreiner's as well as from other iris gardens and shared by friends as bloom season approaches.

When you order from Schreiner's you will pay as much as $65 for a new introduction and even older cultivars are about $10 for each rhizome. What you get for that is the healthiest, largest and mod well presented rhizomes available.  There are many packages available to reduce the costs and 1/2 price deals. You will also receive a bonus of some sort.  I ordered a Medal Winner combo and received as a bonus, "Italian Velvet."

Each rhizome was large and already showed signs of increase.  Given a mild winter the established themselves well in the fall and with an early spring many fans were growing well on every cultivar.  Some held up well to the last two weeks when we dipped into hard freeze territory.  Others, not so well.

As of April 10 in Mendon, NY, just south of Rochester, this is what these cultivars are looking like:

"Beverly Sills" has established itself well and weathered the frost pretty well.

"Golden Panther" really wilted after the frost.  Another rhizome
from Pleasant Valley acted similarly.

"Paul Black" did not produce as much increase,
but is very healthy. 

"Queen's Circle" has a 6 healthy fans.

"Sea Power is healthy but its fans are much smaller.

The bonus "Italian Velvet" is doing nominally well.

"Splashcata" is the most worrisome of what I bought from Schreiner's.
The frost took its toll.

   

Some Shots from My Tundra

The early spring and subsequent 2 weeks hovering just around freezing at night has produced a tundra-like version of many spring bulbs. The usually late spring blooming Angelique and Blue Diamond double tulips are about to open at half their normal height.  Daffodils mostly were up before the frost and some of them have survived nicely.

From a collection of mixed trumpet daffodils comes this bright yellow
cultivar with a tiny orange trumpet...

...and this white with a trumpet of burnt orange

This tulip, "Brown Sugar" is deer resistant, though everything here
got a good treatment of liquid fence.

"Quebec" is a beauty

"Mickey Mouse" has just started to bloom

"Juan"