Nitida is not shooting yet here. Last year it was putting up tons of shoots in May. I hope it doesn't flower. A couple thin little shoots on the murielae. This is a 3-4 year old seedling-started plant that has hardly topped 2' so far. It's the slowest 'boo I've ever planted. On the other hand, a tissue culture F. rufa I planted weeks ago is already shooting and taking off. A three-year-old decora got top killed over the winter and put up two skinny shoots. One drooped over and snapped. Bah. I have another planting that spent two winters in a tub sunk in the ground, and it is shooting like gangbusters.

Hi Sharon, I plant them really shallow - the rhizome is just on the surface of the soil, and I bury the roots. I put no mulch over the rhizomes. To keep the new iris steady until they anchor their own roots, I peg the rhizomes down by crossing two pieces of short bamboo staking over them and pushing the bamboo into the soil (essentially an X of bamboo, with the rhizome under the bottom of the X). I leave the bamboo on the rhizome until the following spring (just in case frost heaving is an issue that winter). I don't fertilize them at all; they're just in normal to slightly lean garden soil. I'm liking the shorter varieties more than the tall ones right now, just for the staking issue. Some tall varieties are sturdier than others, though, and it's impossible to tell if they need staking until I grow them. As for the amount of bloom, I'm still figuring that one out. Last year I had poor bloom from all but a few of mine, even though I'd taken good care of them the year before. (I think the previous year's summer weather has a lot to do with their bloom - they like a HOT summer with a good baking, and we had a cool wet summer that year.) I neglected them terribly last summer (a lot of life got in the way). This year, I had GREAT bloom from many irises. Go figure. I do know they don't like compacted soil or having their rhizomes overcrowded - I have some I have to divide and loosen their soil a bit. They like "sharp" drainage. I hope this helps! Laurel 'Owyhee Desert'

Remember all, the first birds of the season are few and far between. They tend to be males who are beelining it north to stake out the best breeding grounds. Hummingbirds migrate individually, not all at once like some birds do. It's mom nature's way of not putting all of her eggs in one basket. The guys heading north now may stake out the best breeding grounds and father more babies OR they could get frozen out in a late spring storm. In that case the ones that are playing it safe and heading north later win out and get the good breeding grounds and more babies. Other years they may find all of their dance partners taken by the time they get where they're going. Where I'm at I sometimes will spot one mid-April, often I hear othgers nearby have seen them in mid-april, but I won't see one until May. Or the ones we see early are only there for a day or two before heading on, and we don't get our regular "summer long" visitors until May or even June. It's kind of odd, but I've noticed a similar deal here in Iowa - the hummers seem to be sighted along the Mississippi river MUCH further north before we ever see one here. Maybe there's routes they take first and the others fill out the "in between" later. Has any one else noticed this? Imagine a marathon running by your house - you're on a part of the route without crowds. The very first runner may be hours ahead of the main bunch and easy to miss unless you are looking out the window at exactly the right moment. The main bunch fill the road for hours and are impossible not to notice. Hummer migration is kind of like that - it's easy to miss the first few birds. I always put out my feeder early, so I know if a hungry bird stops by he'll have food. If I see an early hummer that's a bonus - I'm happy knowing I'm doing what I can to help them whether or not they come to the feeder just when I happen to look at it. I completely understand your impatience to see your birds, we all share that right now. I just don't want you to stress or be depressed because they're still on your way to you. If you've had dozens you must have good habitat and food for them - they won't forget that. I do hope you'll let us know when they do show up - jot down the date on the calender so you can compare from year to year.

Well, Ken said we can't talk about GE, and I have to say that I've had a couple that just won't grow. On the other hand, I have three that are great growers, probably 3 to 4 feet across and just gorgeous! LOL. By the way, I love Liberty and don't have any problem growing it. I think it's one of my top ten favorites! Anyway, I'll mention three plants that have been a nightmare. The first is petasites. Though despised by some gardeners, in my opinion this is an awesome plant when it's given plenty of room and planted in the right location. It looks best in filtered shade with afternoon shade and plenty of moisture. (Otherwise, it will wilt every afternoon when the sun hits it.) Throw some slug pellets under it a couple times throughout the summer. The leaves will get humungous- I've grown some close to 4 feet in diameter. But BEWARE!!! It send out shoots which travel in every direction and grows fast, even in clay and poor soil! You'll have these things popping up all over before you can say "boo" unless you install a fool-proof root barrier to contain it. The second plant that will run you out of house and home is phragmites australis. You won't normally find this in a garden center and there's a reason why!!! This tall grass is commonly seen growing in ditches along the freeway. There is a native specie which is supposedly okay, but I have an introduced specie which has naturalized throughout the midwest that is...well, I'll say INVASIVE!!! I thought that a clump of this would look interesting in my flower garden, so I dug a hole 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. I lined the sides of the hole with a root barrier (3 feet deep) but neglected to put a barrier on the bottom of the hole. Then I put a clump of this in the center. Later in the summer, I began seeing sprigs of this stuff popping up 6 feet away from the original clump! Hummm...what's going on here? To make a long story short, with a shovel I hand dug 8 yards of dirt out of the center of my flower bed in the process of tracing all the roots that were growing outward in every direction at a depth of 3 to 4 feet!!! I've NEVER, NEVER, NEVER seen a plant grow like that- a nightmare! (While I was trying to dig this thing up, I swore that it was growing faster than I could dig!)Wow, like playing with fire! The last plant, which I'm still fighting a losing battle with, is crown vetch. The Transportation Dept. uses this ground cover on steep banks along the freeway to hold the dirt in place. It loves poor soil and drought conditions! (The only thing that it doesn't like is full shade.) I have it growing all over because the previous homeowner spread a bag of seed to combat soil erosion on the hillsides along my driveway. The stuff is aggressive, hard to kill, and self-seeds in the fall. It makes a continuous mat 3 to 4 feet tall that's just about impossible to walk through it, and strangles out everything in its path including small trees. I don't recommend planting it! Don