Juno Season

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Fri, 07 Apr 2006 10:31:32 PDT
Congratulations to Jim Waddick for succeeding with so many Juno (Scorpiris) 
irises in the open garden! I have not dared to try to many here in our very 
wet winters, but have a few doing well -- especially now that my recently 
acquired Collie is chasing the deer out of the rock garden at night. Deer 
used to eat and pull up these irises regularly when I didn't have a 
Malamute I could trust loose at night.

I grow most of my Junos (the species Jim mentioned) in the bulb frame and 
especially love the little ones such as I. stenophylla and I. 
kuschakewiczii. Last year I bought I. rosenbachiana from Janis Ruksans, and 
it is extremely beautiful, well worth the price.

In the open rock garden I have I. magnifica and I. vicaria. Used to have I. 
bucharica, but the deer destroyed it and I need to move some more in from 
the stock kept safe in the frames. These plants are doing best on a high 
berm of deep sand and pea gravel mounded over a base berm of native soil 
(gritty clay), of course in full sun, with little summer water. Species 
tulips also do well there and now that the deer are on the run, I'll plant 
some more next fall; I've given up on them elsewhere because of the moles 
and voles, which don't venture into this exposed, raised berm. In the 
summer, the berm hosts Alstroemeria species, and there are some Lupinus and 
Digitalis among them. I also moved some big Hastingsia plants there, and 
they've come through the winter well. There is no rockwork on this berm, so 
it looks pretty stupid in winter before the plants emerge, but it's very 
easy to plant into. The perfect drainage is a necessity here: in March, it 
rained or snowed for 30 out of 31 days this year.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA



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