Gardens by Kelly Productions

To date, I think I’ve spent one, all-out serious day in the garden.  Yesterday.  Sure, I was home for short weekends back in April, gardening for hours on end.  I was here most of May during iris bloom season, and lived outside for most of that month too.  But as far as days go where nothing crosses my mind but the blunders of my trowel, I count a lonely one.

And likely as a carryover from yesterday, I sat at my desk today, peering through a window pelted by rain, and found myself in a gardening state of mind.  I like to think I always am, but usually it’s only most of the time.  There are days where paperwork and email and voicemail clutters my head, instead of the sights and smells of the garden.  But in a gardening state of mind, all that disappears.  My mind at that point refuses to leave alone the mental list of garden chores to do, or the tempting idea to wander and stroll without any purpose at all.  It’s those moments, those humble blinks of unshaming ecstasy that I wish I could share with non-gardeners in my effort to create a more beautiful world.  When we can finally give up the din of life’s motor for something more human and less mechanistic, we’ll come to a much greater understanding about the peace and beauty of the natural world around us.

Poet Wendell Berry explored such peace and beauty in his poem The Peace of Wild Things.  The ultimate sentence  summarizes my gardening state of mind: “For a time/ I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

Thought you might like to see what other perennials besides irises caught a little camera time this spring.  As most of you well know my plant afflictions run deep, and honestly irises are probably the least of my worries some days.  Here are a few noteworthy lovelies:

Amsonia tabernaemontana ‘Short Stack’ –A terrific, dwarf selection of Eastern bluestar selected by Tony Avent.  What’s more, in all the years I’ve grown it, I’ve never seen a stray seedling, something I wish I could say for its taller cousins A. tabernaemontana and A. illustris.

Aruncus aethusifolius –First off, this genus is burdened with the one of the most unflattering vernacular names.  Seriously, goat’s beard?  Watch it fly off the shelves with that!  Second, I’m not a fan of A. dioicus.  Words like thuggish come to mind, despite its adaptability to a wide array of conditions.  I much prefer the tidy, bijou, and uber cute dwarf goat’s beard.  It’s just as versatile, save the back row of the border.

Clematis addisonii –I love the species Clematis.  This exceptionally rare rambler from West Virginia bloomed for the first time this year, to my giddy delight.  It’s very happy in the saxatile garden under the shade of a soon-to-be-hemmed cliff goldenrod (Solidago drummondii).

Clematis hexapetala ‘Mongolian Snowflake’ –This is a compact new selection from Harlan Hamernick.  Clematis are certainly sleepers, creepers, and leapers.  This plant needs a few more years yet to grow into its own.  But until then, it’s certainly worth sharing its progress.

Paeonia ‘Garden Treasure’ –We’re fortunate that our local nursery community includes famed peony breeder Don Hollingsworth.  Don has pioneered a number of intersectional crosses (sometimes called Itoh hybrids) like ‘Garden Treasure’.  This peony is truly a golden diva!

Symphytum x uplandicum ‘Axminster Gold’ –Okay, I need an intervention here.  I’m absolutely bonkers about this light-bulb diva for shade.  I raved about it last season, it’s in three of my lectures, and I show everyone who visits the towering fountain of variegated foliage that rises from the crown planted underneath its namesake tag.  Gush I do…

Yes, I’ve been away.  I haven’t posted on this blog in nearly two months and at that during one of the busiest times of a gardener’s life.  I trust you won’t be too upset.  If you’re like me, I’m just rediscovering what an inbox is after traveling back and forth between Ames, our nursery, and around the country for a few engagements.  Let’s catch up.

Probably the most noteworthy item of business to report on is the iris bloom season at Rainbow Iris Farm.  We had one of the best bloom seasons of recent years, due in large part to a cold, snowy winter and ample rain this spring.  The early temperatures of April exponentially powered spring into the early days of May only to be brought to a cool compromise by mid-month.  Rain has since ensued with some regularity–an eloquent way of saying we’re about to float away, again.  It seems southwest Iowa in recent springs is like a little outpost of Portland, OR.  Oy vey…

But check out some pictures of iris season below.  I had a great seedling crop too, which left me filled with ideas about the future of iris breeding.  From what we’ve heard, many of you experienced similar bevies of rainbow flowers.  Here, here to the queens of spring!

In just a few short days, I’m headed home to really garden.  I’ve managed to accumulate plants for three months only to plant about 1% of them.  No longer!  Root-bound, pot-weary, and in need of incessant watering, this tired collection of shrubs and perennials will see dirt by week’s end (weather permitting, sigh).  Even if I can’t plant, I’ll do something.  At some point, gardening becomes an occupation of time for me.  Not because I’m avoiding something I’d rather be doing, but simply to toil away at what makes me truly happy.

I promise the blogging drought won’t last any longer.  I’m away to the garden, and if history tells us anything, I’ll be glad to report.

P.S.–Don’t forget to follow my other blog, Dirt-Y over at http://digthismag.com/blog/dirtyblog.  If you haven’t yet subscribed to Dig This, the bookazine for people who love dirt, you can do so at that link.