The Iris Obsession

I will confess, my favorite flower is iris.  I'm not the type of iris collector that has plants in neat rows or clumps and labeled, but I will admit to being a collector.  I tuck them in around the garden including the bulb varieties. I'm not organized.  It's an impulse purchase because I like the flower, but most often they are plants from friends and coworkers that needed splitting. Of course, I can always find room for more! 

The big bearded ones usually don't capture my heart unless they are a spectacular color like these pink and purple ones. I have no idea what their proper names are and I'm rather fine with that.  I tend to like the Siberian with their grass-like foliage and elongated falls, but sometimes, you just get caught up in color. My friend Mary who gave me these mentioned just last week that she had another one in mind for me. I've got charming yellow ones to share come September for anyone who wants some.

This year I decided to make a section of the Sacrificial Strip (the bit between my driveway and my neighbors) the iris patch.  If I can't find room in the sunny beds, I'm sticking them there. The iris are doing a good job of duking it out with the existing mint.  The back corner of our property is rapidly becoming shadier thanks to the ever-expanding katsura, so I have some iris that needs to get moved, too. This fall I hope to plop in some more bulb iris in different colors, well, just because.

Into the Woods with Wild Hyacinth

Just off the path...

Walks in the woods are one of my most favorite things. You just never know what you find.  I've started volunteering in the Plant Clinc at The Morton Arboretum, so it gives me an excuse to head out after my shift and do a little wandering.  Yesterday, I followed the suggestion of a couple of hikers that had stopped in to the office to identify some wildflowers. 

Spikes of blue!

Turns out they were wild hyacinth or Camassia scilloides and in such profusion! We sell cultivars of this bulb at the garden center and it's planted in a few of the gardens.  However, nothing beats nature in all its splendor! This wildflower likes moist places, either sunny or in open woodlands.  It's a sign of a mature ecosystem and can be found almost any state on this side of the Rockies. According to my wildflower book, both Native Americans and early settlers ate the bulbs. I wonder what they taste like?



Trillium



Wild geranium



Jack-in-the-pulpit



The midspring wildflowers are up and blooming profusely, so there was also wild geranium, trillium, and jack-in-the-pulpits.  And mosquitos.  Tons and tons of mosquitos.  I'm really not ready for them and boy, do they love me!  This was a very quick walk since I was without bug spray.  Still, the chance to see such magnificent drifts of light blue was truly magical!



Scentimental Plants

I think we all have that one plant that brings back memories or celebrates the past.  I'm slowly making my yard a small forest in testament to many years of hiking through the woods and the Morton Arboretum.  I have tucked in a number of plants that have stories attached to them.

My maternal grandparents lived in Glen Ellyn and although they moved to Arizona when I was eight, I still remember the A-frame house my grandfather built.  Their next door neighbor was a very sweet lady named Ginger with an extensive wildflower garden. She, of course, grew wild ginger in abundance.  For her, I have planted it under my birdbaths and it is doing very very well.

My birthday is in May, so my birth flower is lily of the valley.  While Convallaria majalis isn't everyone's cup of tea, I have patches of it all over the yard.  It's only fragrant for a couple of weeks, but inevitably it blooms on my birthday.  There's a nice bouquet sitting on the dining room table right now.  I just pull it when it gets in the way.

My husband's grandmother lived in a cottage on a lake in Meredith, New Hampshire.  For our fifth anniversary, we did a driving tour of New England and stayed with Grammie for three nights.  We had a lovely time and she was a very special lady with boundless curiosity.  In her yard was an ancient lilac with deep purple petals and a white picotee edge. Years later, I found it when I started working at the garden center.  Now 'Sensation' lilac graces the strip along the drive.  Maybe not the most fragrant of the lilacs, but the elegant petals still capture my heart.

Sensation lilac just beginning to open.



Mmmmmmmm....Magnolias!

This had been an outstanding year for magnolias.  We have managed to elude a late frost so the star magnolias (Magnolia stellata) have held much longer than normal. Now the saucers have taken the stage.  I'm fortunate to live in an old neighborhood, so there are lots of mature grande dame Magnolia x soulangiana gracing the streets and lawns.

Isn't she pretty?

Magnolia is a very ancient tree - it evolved before bees. The whorled leathery petals of its flowers were designed to attract beetles instead. There are fossil records of magnolia go back somewhere around 20 million years, although there is evidence of the plant family back to 95 million years. Charles Plumier in 1703 had the audacity to name a flowering tree he found in Martinique after the French botanist Pierre Magnol and it was generally accepted after Linneaus thought it catchy. Ironically, Linneaus never saw a specimen and took it for the same plant described in Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. It all works out in the taxonomic wash, though.

Trust me, it's whorled.

I haven't planted one.  Why?  Because they only look good for a week, and sometimes, not even then.  If we get a late frost, they look like they're covered in wet handkerchiefs as the flowers aren't frost tolerant.  Yes, they have nice big leaves and smooth grey bark, but I have limited space and a long list of trees to plant.  So, I try to go for walks around the neighborhood to visit with everyone else's trees.  There's also a nice collection at The Morton Arboretum, and I am particularly fond of a few on the West Side along Joy Path.



Daffodil Traditions

Some day it will stop raining.  Today is not the day.  So, to perk myself up, I've got daffodils.

From Wordsworth we have the lovely poem 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud' and its daffodils.  I have sprinkled them through the beds, purposefully forgetting where.  They are thriving in the sunniest bed, of course and I manage to have about six weeks of daffodils.  The ones near the driveway came with the house and it is probably past time to dig them up and split them.  Daffodil bulbs will multiply and form almost a volleyball wad of tubers over time.  The critters don't eat them, so they really are an easy bulb.

One of my favorite traditions is visiting Daffodil Glade at The Morton Arboretum.  The project was started in early 30s when Joy Morton was still alive.  There are thousands and thousands and thousands of daffodils now.  The Arb has continued the tradition in recent years and now daffs are sprinkled in spots along the East Side and at the entrance.  Families visit every year and take pictures among the blossoms. 

The Prince family tradition has been to give the first daffodils seen in the grocery stores to my mother-in-law as it is one of her favorite flowers.  This used to be more of a competition before markets started selling imported Irish daffs.  So far, my father-in-law usually wins.

Houseplants I Have Not Yet Killed

It's time for an update on my houseplant purchases from Hausermann's! 

I have not yet killed them!

See?  Isn't it cool?

The orchid is blooming nicely and seems to be very happy.  It's leaves are healthy and the cats haven't knocked it to the floor. 

My one gardenia flower!  So fragrant it filled the study.

However, the gardenia is pissed off.  We just don't have enough humidity in the house to keep  it happy.  It's dropping leaves and now has a case of spider mites.  I'm trotting it down to the basement sink and dousing it with a strong stream of water regularly.  Spider mites can't swim very well.  I'm not sure I'll get another flower out of it, but it was magical while it lasted.  We shall see.  I'm determined to keep trying!

Chives: The Herb of Spring

Chives!  There's some daffodils growing in

the middle of a clump that reseeded itself.

Works well!  Daffodils die down, chives keep on going.

In our house, we know it's spring when we can harvest the first chives.  Perhaps it is my Norwegian heritage that likes to put chives and fish together. Chives always make me think of smoked salmon on rye bread and lots of hot tea.  I'm only an eighth Norwegian, but it crops up out of nowhere sometimes. For me, chives signal spring foods like salads, peas, tender lettuces, and radishes.  There's a sense of throwing off the heavy, sustaining foods of winter and a deep longing for fresh flavors and lightness.

We have lots of chives because I never quite catch all the flower heads before they go to seed.  At this point, they are about six to eight inches high and the perfect size to harvest.  Here are some suggestions on how to use chives that are quick and easy.  I find I prefer to use them as a finishing touch as they don't hold up well to lots of cooking.

• Sprinkle on scrambled eggs, fried eggs, really any eggs, just before they come out of the pan.
• Whip chopped chives with cream cheese and/or yoghurt as a spread for bagels, especially with lox!
• Mix chives with mayonnaise for a great herb mayo for sandwiches.  You can do small batches and keep it tightly sealed in the fridge for days.
• Mix in chopped chives to egg salad, tuna salad, and hashes.
• Toss with salad greens for a nice oniony zing or add to your homemade dressings as a finishing touch.
• Include when cooking fish in paper along with olive oil, capers, and slices of lemon and lime.

What are some of your favorite ways to use chives?