Cabin Fever

So far this winter season has been relatively warm. I have to admit that I'm spoiled. I've been able to take my walks and exercise with the dog most days and have enjoyed it. The past couple of days have been windy and very cold to the point of obnoxious. It certainly didn't take me long to get cabin fever. I wandered around the house this morning looking out the windows at the bare trees and barren garden beds wishing for spring and forcing myself to realize that is it still January. I've got some waiting yet. I study my garden catalogs for plants that might be nice in my garden this coming season and dream of warm weather, shorts, short sleeved T's and flowers. Oh, the flowers...

Liasion. One of my favorite Bearded Iris. I had this in my garden some years ago but left it behind when I built this house thinking that it was a fairly popular bearded iris and easy to find again. For a number of years I was unable to find it but found it on the web and immediately ordered a couple of tubers. I've had these now for three years and they are multiplying nicely. I've been pleased with them and as usual they are as beautiful as I remember them.

In 2003 I went on a bearded iris event where I decided it would be nice to have some put into a rock garden that we had built on the major hill behind the house. Originally we had been mowing this hill, but it was nasty and we often took chances of tipping the tractor to cut it. So we decided it was time to start planting in that hill with rock gardens so we didn't have to worry about mowing it or tipping the tractor when we tried to mow around the trees that I had planted there. So, a visit to Shriner's got me a few iris as well as some I found on Ebay. Would you belive it?! I actually got some really nice bearded iris on ebay. But one that may edge out Liasion was one I got from Shriners, Gnus Flash. I was curious about the blotched bearded iris and had gotten a couple of them. Gnus Flash was the largest tuber and gave me several stems of blooms that sang out "Look at me!" I have to admit I was impressed with this one. It has a very exotic look to it that makes it stand out. Other bearded I got that year but don't have pictures of are Isn't This Something, another blotched iris in a wine color; Romantic Evening, an almost black iris with a bright orange tongue that looks almost neon; Raspberry Wine, as the name implies with a purple tongue; Gypsy Dancer, a pale yellow with lavender shaded falls. I have pictures of this one somewhere; and Total Recall, my one reblooming bearded iris that does live up to it's name in a creamy yellow and white. I have pictures of this one as well somewhere and have made a couple of canvases from the photos as well. Very pretty iris. These will come into bloom again about the same time the roses do.

Also about the same time the roses come into bloom are the clematis. I had tried a couple different varieties of clematis on my arbor, but the one that is the most impressive is the L. Candida. I ended up exchanging all the others for just this one, four plants on my arbor along with the roses, New Dawn, a lovely pink repeating rose, very hardy and disease resistant and the once blooming rambler, Veilanchblu, a large rose with smallish mauve (almost blue) double flowers that bloom so heavy you can't see the leaves. There will be some changes in the next year or two with the roses on this arbor. I like the New Dawn with the L. Candida and will want to replace the Veilanchblu with another, probably one that I root off the original. However, I will only move Veilanchblu to a new site when the patio is complete and we put a sitting area around it with another arbor. Then, once it is established or maybe before I move it at all, I'll start a rooting from that plant as a second one over this arbor. I am also entertaining the idea of putting two or four more L. Candida with these roses as well. Since the clematis is a repeat bloomer, often blooming almost constantly until late October, it will ad flower interest to this arbor when Veilanchblu isn't blooming. L. Candida is a beautiful clematis as you can see with flowers up to about 5" and is as heavy bloomer. It is very impressive. So much so that my mother wants three for her home and my sister wants one for her home. They saw a two year old plant that was nearly 10 feet tall.

If Husband and I do decide to renew our vowls for our 25th anniversary next year, I would want to do this early June in my garden when the roses, iris and clematis are in bloom.