Exciting parcel from White Flower Farm

When you order from a trusty supplier such as White Flower Farm, you have to get your word in early before they run out, but then they send at the right time to plant.  So by the time this parcel arrived yesterday I'd almost forgotten I'd ordered them way back in the spring.

Reblooming irises.  I've been wanting at least one for maybe 40 years, ever since I saw a great garden of them at the local community college, the prized area of one of their horticulture professors.  I was amazed when I first saw it one September long ago, because I had no idea irises ever bloomed again in the Fall. And it was only this year I found a supplier.

These species bloom in spring, then take a rest, then come back in Fall to do it again.  So I'm embarking on three of them.  Given the way irises multiply, this is probably a lot.  One light blue, two white, always loved white iris.  

They're planted out front where the colors will blend with the current purple and white ones, and will be fading just in time to give way to the daylilies and the yellow sunflower type daisies.  Then in fall, you see the Montauk daisies just budding up nicely? next fall they'll be accompanied by the reblooming of the blue and white iris.  At least that's the plan.

So the rebuilding of the destroyed front yard after the reno is getting there.  

I put one white one here, but first had to uproot a huge bag of pachysandra to make room for it.

Then the other two went in so that they will form a curve seen from the street, since I like my neighbors to enjoy this, too.  I cleverly remembered to put the name tag in beside the new planting, because it has the color on as well as names. You see them sticking up. Each area involved digging up and uprooting tons of pachysandra which is great stuff, but tends to get aggressive with its roots.  But it breaks up soil clods a treat, as good as potatoes.

 I trimmed back, again, the Russian sage, which loves it here and grows madly, in order to see the Montauk daisies and the clump of chrysanthemums behind them.


And from the daffodils to iris, to daylilies, to daisies, with the Russian sage blooming right over the season and the pachysandra always going, and the pink sedum, Autumn Joy, blooming in September, and the chrysanthemums, whose color I have forgotten from last year, I have a nice long season going.  In among the pachysandra are pots of herbs, the lavender going while iris are out and after, and the thyme bushing all over, with tiny white flowers.

Amazing how much work  plants,  you can pack into a tiny area...I do a lot of thinking about this teeny place, because it needs to look nice from the street, and from my kitchen window, and from the sides, since my walkway is beside it.  

It's not like having a fence and backing plantings up to it, a bit more challenging.  I do have that on the patio, much easier for decision making, but I still want it to look nice from indoors as well as for passersby walking out back, and for me when I sit out. I know the spot I see best from the sofa, for armchair gardening purposes, always a good thing.