Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

You got a great deal on your irises, but that was a LOT of work too.

What I love about irises- besides their beauty & independent return year after year, is that they tolerate terrible soil & neglect- My deep purple ones had originally been planted in the side yard here by a former owner, but it was too shady & very few bloomed for years, until I moved them into my front yard along the driveway, where they get lots of sun & bloom like crazy. The soil is poor & rocky too but they don't care one bit.

It worked out great because my deep purple ones all bloom early, then I get a second wave of irises when all the other colors chime in. Some of my irises were in a big box of unknown rejects that someone cleared from their garden...freebies, so I had no idea what colors I was planting when I put them in. I'm in the mid-south btw, so the daylillies like the climate here better.

I wish planting them was the hardest thing to do, but keeping the weeds off thousands of plants-it is like farming flowers... I have recently adopted a targeted herbicide (Hi-Yield Grass-Killer-Sethoxydim 18.0%) to cut down on any grass that tries to grow through the center of the rhizomes. The herbicide kills the grass over the course of several weeks, and seems to have done a great job this year without harming my flowers. Someone mentioned online that the herbicide will kill ground phlox, but I tested it on mine: and it did not.

I also have a sand pit on my property which I call 'The Dead Zone'. I have tried to grow all sorts of plants unsuccessfully, and irises are the only plants that thrive there...

Fun fact: Irises, Asparagus, and Orchids are all in the same taxonomic Order: Asparagales. Irises are more closely related to Asparagus than they are Orchids though.

In other news: I was collecting a clutch of eggs today and there was one 'rollout' (far right in the photo below). It felt a little different than the others. Normally I just keep metrics on my overall viability of eggs for the season, however I think I will start tracking the success rate of rollout eggs as well. Based on my prior experience I think there is a strong correlation between 'rollouts' and low viability. I don't candle any of my eggs because I'm going to incubate them regardless.