mat forming phlox

There are a number of mat-forming phloxes, which are very different from the tall garden phlox that most people are familiar with. Of the small phloxes, the most familiar is "moss phlox" Phlox subulata, and for those living on the East coast, the native Phlox stolonifera and Phlox divaricata. Of these, the moss phlox does well in New Mexico and there are many named and attractive cultivars.  They tend to cover themselves in flowers for a few weeks in the spring, and when not in bloom are still attractive.

These from my garden: 

 

These are blooming in my friend's yard. 

 

There are apparently quite a number of rock garden phloxes, as Robert Nold describes in his book High and Dry. The difficult part is finding them. I've only found a couple. I had Phlox kelsyi 'Lemhi Purple' for a few years, but the three plants died after a few years of struggling. I think they need cooler temperatures and more water than I could give them.  I've since obtained a Phlox kelsyi 'Lemhi Midnight' which is such a charming plant, but is not very happy in my yard, which seems to be too hot and dry for it. It has survived for 2 years though.

Also not happy in my yard is Phlox bifida, which is native to dry sandy areas of Kentucky and Tennesee. I thought that it would be adaptable to dry sandy Albuquerque, but apparently not. I bought this plant as a "blue" form, but although the flowers were lavender last year, they are more pink-purple this year. Still attractive, this is the one that survived.

 I still keep my eyes out for any of the miniature phloxes. They are just too cute to pass up.

more tall bearded

Another day, more of the tall bearded irises open. What can I say? I like them tall, bearded. Well, I like the short bearded ones also.

'Merry Amigo' may just be my favorite.

'Speed Limit' is fully open now.

'Victoria Falls' has such fabulous color that I had to post another.

irises

'Victoria Falls' and 'Immortality'

The tall bearded irises are starting right now. The tall bearded iris is the iris that many people most look forward to, as it is arguably the most dramatic of the irises. Like all the bearded irises, it is easily grown, the rhizomes can tolerate total dryness for long shipping or storage, are easily divided, multiply readily (most varieties), easy to breed intentionally. The bearded irises can also be quite fragrant, and have large flowers. So it's no wonder that the bearded irises are popular, and that there are innumerable cultivars grown, and that people collect them. Their downside? They are not very attractive most of the year when they are not in bloom, they have a short window of bloom, and they have a pretty specific transplant season, which is not in the spring (unless container grown).

'Speed Limit'

I get into kicks where I get very enthusiastic about a certain type of plant for a while, and a couple of years ago it was about irises. I was planning our wedding and we had plans for the reception at our house, and I wanted some dramatic flowers for our May wedding. So I planted bearded irises. Of course they bloomed too early for the wedding, and most of them had the stems broken (and thus flowering destroyed) by some intense winds we had, but the roses more than made up for the lack of irises.

'Victoria Falls'

'Victoria Falls' was one of the first tall bearded irises that I planted when I was a teenager, and it is still one of my favorites. As a teenager, I discovered that in California at least, if irrigated in the summer, this iris multiplied quite quickly, and after a couple of years and dividing each year, I had a large grouping of them about 8 feet across. What a dramatic sight! They can also rebloom in the late summer, and although not heavily, a delightful surprise. I love the color and they have a fabulous scent.

'Immortality'

Although 'Immortality' is known for its ability to rebloom, it hasn't done so for me here in Albuquerque. Still, it's a nice white. There are other white tall bearded irises that have better form though.

'Best Bet'

'Best Bet' is the first iris that I planted here at The Modern House. I planted it when I made my first planting bed maybe 6 years ago. I've since had to move it to a better spot as the shrubs in that location grew larger. It is also supposed to rebloom, but mine has not. These are the first of the tall bearded irises to bloom. More to come. It's a good idea to plant irises that bloom at different times of the iris season if you want to prolong the duration of bloom. If you plant varieties that bloom at the same time, it will be a much more dramatic display, but for only a week or two.

'Gemstar'

Tall bearded irises are certainly not the only type of bearded irises or the only kind of irises, of course (otherwise people wouldn't specify "tall" and "bearded" would they?). There are a variety of classes of the bearded irises varying in size. I also have miniature bearded irises. They are similar to the tall bearded irises but, as you can imagine, miniature. They can be as small as 4 inches tall. They are also among the earliest to bloom of the bearded irises. My records say that mine began blooming April 3 this year. They are almost finished now.

'Autumn Jester'

'Riveting'

'Alpine Lake'

'Eramosa Enigma'

The miniature bearded irises are not the earliest of irises to bloom though. The earliest, if you can call if that, is Iris unguicularis. This iris is known for opening flowers during warm spells throughout the winter.

Iris unguicularis 'Logan Calhoun'

Delicately beautiful and scented, they are a delightful surprise in the winter garden.

Many more irises to come, as more of the tall bearded irises come into bloom. Then there will be the few spuria irises that I have.

Lurie Garden

Some of the initial ideas for my garden design came from The Lurie Garden. This week, I had the dream opportunity to go to the Lurie Garden when a work even brought me to Chicago. Unfortunately, it is not the best time of the year to see the salvia river, but still a great opportunity. Fortunately the office and hotel were only a few blocks away. After a few hours flight, then an hour long train ride, I arrived at the Washington station, and with the rain falling, and sunset imminent, I hoofed it over to the Lurie Garden. Who cares if I and my luggage got wet! It was my only time that I would have to see it, with a full agenda of meetings, so I was going to see it, darn it!

It was rather gratifying to see that the garden looked fairly ragged. Even great gardens have their down time. This is a living, dynamic space after all, not the photographs that I would see on the web. So I felt gratified that this real garden, designed by a famous garden designer, still had it's down time. My garden is also not picture perfect, every day of the year. Far from it. This is what the salvia river looks like now, the blue being filled in with grape hyacinths.

I got a sense that the prairie must have been fairly featureless before all the cities and roads were built. Some might find it boring. I find it to be peaceful.

It is a much smaller space than I expected, and the famous hedges didn't border the space on 3 sides as I though they would have, based on the photos.

Beautiful walkway.

Probably a month behind Albuquerque, the daffodils were coming up.

Stems are intentionally left long in order to house overwintering insects. This made me wonder about the differences in philosophy: 1) clean up the garden in the fall in order to remove disease and bad insects, or 2) leave the stems to give winter protection to the plants, and good insects?

These Mertensias would never survive the heat and dry of Albuquerque.

 

 View of the Lurie Garden from my meeting space.

Amaryllis 'Painted Desert'

Although there is a lot happening outside, there is still excitement indoors. I wait to bring my amaryllis (Hippeastrum) in from the garage until the weather starts to warm, and/or the flower stems start to appear. That way they don't have to suffer from being indoors as they grow their light hungry leaves after bloom. But, the trade-off is that I don't have Christmas blooms. I think it's an okay trade-off.

Amaryllis 'Painted Desert' isn't an official name. The plant is my own hybrid that I created in 2015 from 'Red Lion' and H. papilio.  I don't have either of the parents any more. 'Red Lion' dwindled and I gave up on coddling it. Papilio for some reason got smaller and smaller flowers and the green didn't excite me, so I gave up on it, also. But 'Painted Desert' has become an amazing plant. The flowers are not of great form, but the color is unique, and the vigor of the plant just can't be beat. I put a 2 foot ruler next to the plant to show the scale.

The first bulb put out two stems, but one came out all bent. Weird. This plant has been so vigorous that it split the pot.

And I'm not going to complain about the lack of form of the flowers, because en masse, they are still great.

A funny color break on one of the petals. I hope it's not a virus.

 Slight lateral compression from the papilio parent.

 I love the gradation of color on the buds as they form, which I find very engaging.

 

The light tips of the petals is unique as far as I know. I don't know of any commercially produced ammaryllis with this characteristic.

I think this would be a great plant in a tropical landscape, where the stiff form of the florist amaryllis looks awkward to my eye.