Dig It-Barbara Walther-Historic Iris

Barbara Walther

When someone comes to Pittsgrove Farms looking for a white bearded iris, we immediately go to our Old Faithful, Immortality, which is both hardy and prolific. Our customer goes off happy as can be, especially when told that it is a fairly reliable rebloomer. However, every now and then we will get a comment that Immortality is more cream or ivory, not as "white" which is when we go to Barbara Walther.

Immortality

Barbara Walther is pure white with a white beard and named for the the woman who was instrumental in getting the property next to hers in Essex county turned into the parkland on which the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens now stand. Barbara Walther as volunteer curator at Presby was personally responsible for turning it into the world renowned iris gardens that it is today.

Barbara Walther

Barbara Walther, the iris, is tall (37") and sturdy and shines brightly amongst groupings of its colorful relatives.

I'm Not As Reliable As Immortality

Immortality

Yikes---how could so much time go by since my last post!!! Some of you must have thought we left the country or something. Won't make excuses, that never goes over well with the husband. Let's just say when we worked outside the last couple of months we worked hard and when we played outdoors, we played hard! Then I was either too fried or too lazy to try to put words together in any meaningful fashion. I wish I was as reliable a blogger as Immortality is a rebloomer, seen flowering in various parts of the farm as it does every year. I'll try to hit the keyboard in a more timely fashion.

I hope the summer brought as many great times with family and friends as it did for us and that you were as ready as I to boldly move forward and tackle all the garden chores left by the wayside over the summer months.

It's always a disappointment to return from vacation to the realization that weeds always grow much better than anything you deliberately plant. We also wonder why deer love our perennials but never touch a weed! How do they recognize the difference and how can we get them to see how tasty crab grass is compared to hosta! If anyone comes up with a great solution, let me know.

Much of our fall work is complete with iris divided, peonies potted, and beds cleaned up and fertilized. As one of our visitors said today, having as much of your garden cleanup done in the fall leaves springtime for planting. She then headed home to do her own yard cleanup before the great weather we've been having disappears. I'll be back on my knees finishing up the weeding and hopefully back at the keyboard in a much more timely fashion.

Happy Gardening!
Cheryl

Curl Up With a Good Book

Happy New Year and belated holiday greetings to all. As you can tell, all my blogging efforts went on the back burner for a long time and I hope your holiday celebrations were as enjoyable as ours.

We were delighted to have my cousin and her daughter from Australia, daughter and granddaughter of the "Pagan Dancers"(see September 15, 2008 blog) spend Christmas with us and it was interesting to see their reaction to places and things that we so take for granted. For example, upon seeing the rink at Rockefeller Center, Denise's reaction was "Is that it??? It looks ten times larger in the movies and on TV!!!" But she was thoroughly impressed by the tree. And she was equally amazed that in the States the mailman not only delivers your mail, but will pick up any to be sent. Guess we shouldn't complain as much about the postage!

Denise and Rhiannon must be happy to be back in warmer climes now that winter has taken a nasty turn here. We awoke to 4 degrees this AM and may see temperatures go below 0 tomorrow morning, which gives us a good reason to light the wood stove and curl up with a good book. There are a few that we have read and keep on hand as reference books that we would like to recommend until we get a bit of a thaw and all you avid gardeners are able to get your hands dirty again.

The World of Irises by Warburton and Hamblen and published by The American Iris Society provides a wealth of information and encompasses the worlds of bearded, beardless, and lesser known varieties. It is a must have reference for the serious iris enthusiast's book shelf. The beautifully illustrated The Gardener's Iris Book by William Shear is full of excellent advise on the selection, care and propagation of irises.


For you peony lovers, Peonies by Allan Rogers and The Gardener's Peony-Herbaceous and Tree Peonies by Martin Page are books that John and I have used extensively. Both contain beautiful color plates and information about the wide variety of peonies available as well as their culture.

Head to your library or local book store, pick up one of the above volumes, or peruse the shelves for any other gardening book of your choosing, then over the winter you can dream of the fantastic additions you can make to your gardens come spring.

Iris Curtain Call

Immortality

As summer finally made its exit and autumn has established itself with some glorious color here in western central Jersey, I have delighted in the return of some of our reblooming irises.

Pink Attraction

Immortality, that most reliable and prolific of our reblooming bearded iris, proved itself to be the head honcho, perking up our landscape wherever it was planted, whether in our stock beds or in the display gardens. In a previous post I had mentioned our new iris, Pagan Dance, (my Australian uncle got such a kick out of that one that he now signs his letters Uncle Graham, The Pagan Dancer!) also continued blooming on the tiny stems of these newly planted gems. It was joined by Pink Attraction which looks like it will also prove to be a strong iris with wonderful attributes.

Halston

Intermediate Davy Jones teamed up with Halston adding to the rich, deep color that so many iris lovers look forward to in their gardens. But the blossoms that warmed my heart the most appeared on tiny Baby Blessed the dwarf that nestled in a bed of autumn leaves next to our driveway. I've always had a fondness for yellow and being of short stature, relate to anything little with spunk, so have great respect for this little plant that stood up to the frosty temperatures of late while everything else was succumbing to the cold that had set into our area.Baby Blessed

These lovely blooms will soon fade as we prepare for the onset of winter, but they have served to whet my anticipation of things to come once spring awakens the earth once more.

In Honor of "The Land Down Under"

My apologies for my long absence. You must remember we are "retired"! At least we were for a few weeks with a much too short visit with our dear west coast family and then some fun in the sun down the Jersey shore (no one in Jersey goes to the beach--it's always "the shore").

Now it is back to business, and with the weeds that awaited us as always, computer work piling up, and an email saying our first batch of peony roots have been shipped, we are certainly out of retirement mode.

John sometimes teases me that I like to order plants the same way his beloved mom used to pick race horses on the rare occasions she went to Monmouth Park-by their nifty names. Just like Grandma Gulish, my picks often turn out to be winners.

Two of those, one a daylily, the other a tall bearded iris fall into that category. Each was chosen because of my very special Australian aunt and uncle who are also avid gardeners.
The award winning daylily, Anzac, struck a very special chord with me as the acronym, ANZAC stands for the Australian New Zealand Army Corps of which my Uncle Graham was a proud member dating back to WWII when he served alongside my American GI Dad in New Guinea. Of course that daylily had to be grown in his honor and turned out to be a tall, stately addition to our stock beds.It is fortunate for me that my Uncle Graham and Auntie Rae have keen senses of humor as evidenced by the nicknames I gave them, Duke and Ramona. Although now in their 80's, they display the pluck and "can do" spirit of people decades younger, which is why they will laugh when I say I chose Pagan Dance as a tribute to them! I by no means consider them pagans, but after reading the description of this iris, I knew we had to grow it.

What caught my attention first naturally, was that it was from Australia, but the fact it was a rebloomer and so rich in color added to its desirability. We planted the rhizomes a month ago and much to my surprise, like my aunt and uncle, this plant shows great spunk! Who would expect it to bloom so soon after planting and just not a single bloom, but a cluster. Pagan Dance has brightened our otherwise colorless field, just as my aunt and uncle have brightened my life with their lighthearted ways.