Here I sit in front of the computer instead of getting done what needs to be done today. I had big plans yesterday about what was going to happen today, but it is wet and cold this morning and I haven't ventured out yet. Just drinking a couple of cups (or maybe 4-5) of coffee while I think about doing.
I have started dividing and transplanting my iris rhizomes to different areas around the house. I have a mass right beside our driveway that has increased from the 8-10 plants I originally put there to a 10 foot stretch of packed together, crowded roots that were becoming too crowded to bloom. I had also placed 2-3 plants of different colors about 2 feet apart when I first planted them, and they have blended together into one long bed of iris. They are pretty when they bloom, but were starting to slow down because of the crowding, so it was time to divide. It has actually been time for the last few years, but just couldn't make myself get out there and do it.
They have spread together so much that I can't tell where one color ends and the next starts, so when they were blooming I laid a piece of weed eater line between the colors. Most of the line stayed in place the whole summer, but one piece at least got removed when I got too close with the lawn mower. Oh well. I could have moved them when they were blooming. Iris are very forgiving about that and will recover in record time, but the blooms that are on the plants will probably die down and not finish blooming unless you do it in a very wet and/or cool time. I love the blooms and don't ever want to miss them so I always try to wait until fall which is also the best time to transplant.
I am replanting them with enough space between rhizomes that it will be easy to pull up the ones that are a different color when they bloom.
I pulled up the first bunch of rhizomes the other day and out of a 3 foot space I had enough roots to almost fill my lawn cart. WOW. I planted 2 beds of them out near the fence. I hope the cows leave them alone, which will be a first if they do, they have eaten everything in my yard at one time or another. They have never bothered my iris but they did eat my daughter's iris through the fence at her house a few years ago.
Today I need to pull up and transplant at least one more section of rhizomes and find a place to plant them. I think a bed up against the fence and then another bed behind the house. I will have iris all over the yard by the time I am finished.
There are iris planted around 3 sides of our well house that need to be divided and transplanted also. One different color on each side of the well house. Maybe two colors on one side, can't remember exactly. I might have to get out some old pictures to help me remember.
Can you tell by now that I love iris? They are my favorite flower. I think maybe because they smell so good when they bloom. And they are beautiful, beautiful shapes, beautiful colors, I just love iris.
I also need to transplant a couple of knock-out rosebushes the daughters got me for Mother's Day a few years ago. I have them planted on the south side of the house but they have hardly grown at all.
A Joseph's Coat rose bush that did okay this year but is a mile (slight exaggeration) from the house and water.
A hydrangea bush that same daughter got me a couple of years ago for Mother's Day that bloomed the first year, but the dogs wouldn't stay off of, kept digging a hole right beside it to get down in the cool, damp earth where I had watered it so much. I moved the bush to the south side of the house where the knockouts are, but that side of the house is just too hot for most plants, and even with watering they have to compete with a humongous elm tree for moisture. So to the back of the house, which is the eastern side of the house, and the side with the water hydrant also. Or maybe the northern side, which is still close to the water, and of course, cooler.
Anyway, lots of work to be done, gotta get a move on.
Next time.
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