Crossed Tall Bearded Iris

I thought I blogged about this before but I guess not. I wrote the flower off as 'dead and gone' when it bloomed. But anyhow....

In 2013, I crossed an Immortality Iris with a "Purple Mom/Black Dad" Iris, and I was successful. I got a seed pod, I winter-sowed them and posted a picture of them growing the next spring/early summer. 

During Spring 2015, quite a few flowers came up. 

I started documenting the flowers coming up...



...and all of them were purple...



What's this?!



It was the only "white" one to come up and I was completely obsessed with it. Unfortunately around this time, I caught something bad. All I remember is that there were a lot of pollen flying around and then all of a sudden I had a fever, a lot of sweating, and after a week of that, a cough moved in and then went deep into my lungs. That was a nightmare that lasted for way too long. I even went out with a paint pen and scribbled on the leaves so that when I got better, I'd be able to find it and separate it.

By the time I got better, all the original leaves in the pot had died down and gave way to new leaves. I had no idea which one I wanted to dig up, and pretty much wrote the flower off as dead and gone.

Then cue 2016. For some reason the garden did not bloom much this year. I had very few amaryllis blooms, as well as a handful of iris blooms scattered around. I don't know if it was because winter wasn't cold enough? I don't know.

Then to my complete and utter surprise...



Only one iris bloomed in this pot and it was the one that I thought was long gone.



I was absolutely determined to separate it this time while I still can. After the flowers ran their course and shriveled up, I got it repotted in a pot all by itself.



There were two teeny, tiny rhizomes attached to it so I'm hoping it'll eventually take over the whole pot with a bunch of new rhizomes to carry on the legacy.

Amaryllis Bed - Iris

My amaryllis bed - the old one with three clumps - are pushing out lots of scapes! I wasn't quite sure since the amaryllis insisted on growing as early as January and we kept having bits of frost here and there that kept stinging the leaves or making them die down.

Amaryllis Bed - Three Clumps

The clump on the left has been pushing out serious scapes. The middle clump are my seeds grown from 2007. The clump on the right are starting to push up some scapes.

Bloom from 2007 seeds

Same bloom as above.

I forced flash to show the yellow throats since the color was drowned out in the above picture.

Close-up of beard on Tall Bearded Iris

I have irises coming up! I don't know the name of the iris in the pictures. My mother says she purchased it many years ago as "Black Iris" but when it opens up, it takes on a very dark red color.

Tall Bearded Iris

Tall Bearded Iris

This could be why it's referred to as black iris. When bunched up, they're very black but when they open up, they take on that dark red color as the bloom above.

I'm thinking of self-pollinating some of the blooms. I was told that severe inbreeding will bring out recessive traits and it might be a fun experiment to try.

Bearded Iris seedlings

I have to admit that I'm surprised at how many Bearded Iris seeds germinated. Last year I went to look up information on when to sow the seeds and it was pretty much agreed that the methods of winter stratification or soaking the seeds in water for weeks were the way to go. There was talk about how some of the seeds are so tough that their purpose is to take up to ten years before they burst free from the shell. Something about how they're protected in case something happens to the early birds that came up. It looks like just about every seed germinated.

Purple Mom/Black Dad

Black Mom/Purple Dad

Close-up of iris seedlings - Black Mom/Purple Dad

And for personal records, I was given a couple more plants.

Dutch Iris Miss Saigon and Garden Amaryllis Red & White

After doing a search for Dutch Iris, it appears that they're less-liked because they tend to dwindle in number instead of proliferating? The "Garden Amaryllis Red & White" looks like Minerva.

Iris seedling

I love how my iris seedling is starting to look like an iris. It seems 'big' in this picture but it is incredibly tiny in the pot. Quick to miss when looking around. hehe.

As it is right now, I've spotted three iris seedlings in this "Black Mom/Purple Dad" pot. The "Purple Mom/Black Dad" pot has nothing so far.

Cleaning up backyard - Iris Seedling

It appears the cutting company is done removing the pine trees from the woods that butt up against the backyard. For us, the focus is now on the side of the backyard and the mess that was caused by Hurricane Irene when she toppled the pine trees back in August.

With the weather cooling down and while the wisteria vines have lost their leaves, the clean-up of the backyard has finally started. For a couple days now, it's been a lot of cutting and tugging at the vines. As for the pine trees that were laying on the fence, a couple of them were removed with the chainsaw until the chain broke.

 Slowly getting it loaded up. Once the chainsaw is fixed, the rest of the fallen pine trees will be cut off the fence. I don't know about the mess on the other side of the fence seeing as that isn't our property but some of those pine trees are leaning over into the backyard. I don't know how long they'll have before they give up from the weight of the wisteria on top.

Right now the top priority is to just clear everything off the fence and straighten it back up for the dogs. It'll be nice to see the edges of the yard again.


So much for winter-sowing. Looks like at least one Iris seedling has germinated and started coming up...

Iris Seedling

Both Iris pots will be moved into the greenhouse to protect them from the freezing temperatures that are coming (assuming winter gets here) in case more seeds have germinated.

Cherub's Smile Bearded Iris

The weather has been really nice for a while. It's 71 degrees right now as I write this. It's shorts-wearing weather. Little gnats slipping in through the screens of opened windows. And of course plants reacting to the warm weather and getting ready to burst with new life. And we're just a week into January.

I found out that my two Cherub's Smile Bearded Iris bulbs started growing. It looks like they got stung by the cold weather we had a few days back. On one hand, I'm still annoyed that we haven't had prolonged "winter"-iness but on the other hand, I am quite tickled to find out that the two dried up bulbs are still alive and kicking! This pot will have to be moved into the greenhouse when temperatures drop below freezing.

So how's the weather where you live?

Schlumbergera Flowers amongst some others

I guess Winter doesn't exist anymore... Or he's just dragging his butt this year. It's sort of hard to believe that we're in December and my plants are still alive. The heater was used once thus far when it hit 30 overnight. I left out the two boxes of spider plants and while they got singed, they pretty much continued on.

Anyhow, my schlumbergera (Thanksgiving Cactus) are blooming. Got the red, pink, and Dark Maria going. Normally cold temperatures come and I stick them in the greenhouse with the heater. The plants lose their buds before they have a chance to open. With how warm it's staying, the flowers are coming out to play.

The yellow schlumbergera is always the last to open so this one is still working on opening their flowers.

And of course, randomness like a decaying angel.

And the shadow of a lizard. They're all running rampant still...

Also! Before I forget, as a personal note to myself, I received two new bearded iris bulbs about a week ago and I know come next spring, I'm going to forget and say, "I know it said 'cherub' something!" Instructions said to get them out before first frost so I stuck them in a pot. They looked pretty shriveled up as is so I don't know if they're even alive. Guess I'll find out come next spring.

Bearded Iris Cherub's Smile

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Winter Sowing and Schlumbergera

Pots ready for winter-sowing of the seeds!

I got these four pots ready for winter sowing. Iris (Black Mom/Purple Dad), Iris (Purple Mom/Black Dad), Asiatic Lily, and Clematis. I kept reading over and over that winter sowing was needed for these seeds so I'm just going to have these pots sitting outside all winter long and see if the seeds do pop out come spring. A fun new experience. At the moment, it's the Iris that I can't wait for. I'd love to see those pop up but the others would be fun to see too.

Dark Maria - Schlumbergera

It also turns out that the schlumbergera have started pushing out flower buds. I guess I was a bit surprised because a good chunk of them fell apart or got too much water or it was too hot or... It was a serious pain to keep them happy this year and I have just about given up. Though, it's refreshing to see them try to flower. I know the buds will fall off once the temperatures drop and I have to get the heater running to prevent them from freezing - which always shocks them into dropping their buds, unfortunately.

Pink? Red? Schlumbergera

Iris Seed Pods / Sunflowers

I was surprised to wake up this morning and find out that it poured last night. A lot of green everywhere! Boy, everything certainly perks up pretty quickly when a good rain comes through the area. Too bad it only seems to happen once every few weeks. Thunderstorms sure don't like passing through here for some reason.

Iris Seed Pod

Iris Seed Pod

I was surprised that the pods have started splitting open. They were white-ish yesterday but this morning they seemed to have really jumped and started splitting.

Sunflower

Sunflower

Amaryllis, Clematis, Cat, and the rest....

Red Amaryllis with  strong white/yellow throats.

 Other angle of same amaryllis.

 This red amaryllis has a hint of white/yellow throat but mostly red.

 Clematis seed pods. After the petals fall off, they start looking like thread balls.

 Random cat! Have to toss one of these in here... Meet Gypsy. ;)

 Iris seed pods. Boy, they grow really big, don't they?

 A random Petunia volunteer. There's quite a few of these in the cracks of the stones. I'll have to lift up the stones and pot them all.

This is a mystery seed that a friend sent to me. She has no idea what they are. So far it seems to look and act like the Century Plant seedling with a big giant black seed at the end of a green stalk.

Venus Fly Trap and other updates

The left amaryllis clump has tons of blooms coming up and getting ready to open. The middle clump is my seed-grown batch and there's still only two buds (which I am still ecstatic about!). The right clump is still slow going. In the back are the banana plants. For some reason, the leaves of the largest one is coming out all damaged. I'm not sure what's going on with that one.

A close-up of an amaryllis bud from my seed-grown batch. Fingers tapping impatiently...

My dragon arum plants are still slowly opening. You can see the purple edging on the left one. It's getting close now.

Two purple iris flowers and a pollinated seed pod to the side.

I got to thinking that I really miss my prickly pear flowering every spring so I yanked the plant out of its terrible pot and repotted it in a much larger pot (which is semi-medium). Suddenly one pad just shot out so it's extremely happy at the moment.

It took me a little bit to remember what these are in the amaryllis bed. I knew they weren't weeds and I do remember opening a packet and just scattering the seeds all willy nilly without doing anything else. I believe these are the Blue Queen Salvia seedlings.

And yes.... I finally got a Venus Fly Trap today! It's kinda weird because I usually see Venus Fly Traps in red pots with a plastic 'cup' on top. I've never seen it sold like this before. The pot is very tiny and I can't help but feel I need to repot it so that it doesn't dry out so fast. Either that or I'll just have to set up a dish with some rocks so that water always touches the bottom.