Plant Exchange

Plant Exchange plants I received, perfectly packages and arrived safely!

I am doing the Happy Dance!!! It’s fun to find a box full of plants at your mailbox! Check out the pictures of the beautiful plants I received in my trade~! In case you missed my post last week, Plant Exchange , I was looking to trade Lemon Lime hostas for variegated bearded iris.

Elizabeth commented that she had reblooming German Iris, “Stairway to Heaven” to trade and was interested in the Lemon Lime hosta. We emailed and agreed on the trade, I would send her a bunch of eyes of Lemon Lime hosta and she would send me two bearded iris. Next step for us was to prepare and ship the plants.

The above and below pictures are the plants I received from Elizabeth, are they just beautiful! I am very happy with the trade!! She also included as an extra gift, a Begonia. I got the Begonia planted right away and the iris were planted today.

Thank you so much for trading with me Elizabeth!

Reblooming German Iris, “Stairway to Heaven” and Begonia

As you can see in the above picture, she cut the fans on the iris to help them survive the trip to me. By the way, Elizabeth loves the outdoors, excellent photographer, gardener and blogger. She has also posted about our trade, check out her post, Forest Garden Blog.

I shipped the Lemon Lime hostas (above left) and an extra gift, a good size Japanese Iris!

I also cut the Japanese Iris fans to help the iris survive the shipping. My package arrived at her home today, got an email saying that FedEx delivered the package safely to her today. The plants all made the trip beautifully!! She is going to plant the hosta in a containers and was going to give some thought on where to plant the iris before planting.

We were both very happy with the trade and have already talked about doing another trade. Trading is fun and well worth the effort! 🙂

Now on to proposing another trade! Ok, for my second trade this is what I have;

HAVE:  Japanese-Iris-Jin-Yu, Siberian Iris, Agapanthus Stevie Wonder lily of the Nile and Lemon Lime Hosta. The Japanese-Iris-Jin-Yu is a mature plant as well as the Agapanthus and hosta. The Siberian iris are good size but not full grown. If you are interested in trading please leave a comment letting me know and list what you have for trade. Below here are a few plants, seedlings I am looking for but just make me an offer!

Helleborus
Variegated Bearded Iris
Oxblood Lily bulbs
Crinum Lilies
Striped Solomon’s Seal
Iris cristata
Lily of the Valley
Pink Paniculata Hydrangea seedling
Japanese Maple seedlings
Walnut Tree seedlings
Blueberry seedlings
Black Bamboo

 

Japanese-Iris-Jin-Yu

Agapanthus Stevie Wonder lily of the nile

Siberian Iris

 

The Plant Exchange provides a place where you can offer plants, seed, cuttings and bulbs for trade and make requests for what you are seeking. It’s fun, you offer a plant, seed, cuttings, bulbs to trade for free in exchange for plants, seed cuttings or bulbs in return.

If you are interested, in a “Plant Exchange”, you can post a comments on this page include details of what you have to trade and what you are looking for. If someone is interested, they will comment and email you. Be sure that you include your email so that you can email each other and work out the details of the trade and exchange shipping addresses.

Sorry but I can not be responsible for your trades, trading is done at users’ discretion. Michael’s Woodcraft has no control or responsibility over trades arranged here. Keep in mind some traders may let you down, let’s hope that doesn’t happen, please be fair in your trade. Other might send a free gift, an extra plant that they think you would enjoy having in your garden! 🙂

The rain has set in for the weekend here on the mountain, our local forecast shows 100% rain today and tomorrow. Great for the garden 🙂 Enjoy your weekend!

 “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”  – Ronald Reagan

 

 

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Favorite Fragrance

June 27, 2014

Oriental Lily Dizzy

These are my Oriental Lilies that I purchased in December last year. The oriental lilies have the most wonderful fragrance and it is one of my favorites! The fragrance is very sweet and if you plant oriental lilies you need to plant them near your deck or door way, bedroom windows so that you can savor their fragrance every possible moment!

Garden View

In January 2014 when I received the lily bulbs I posted Growing Oriental Lily Bulbs. If you would like to learn more about the bulbs and growing these read my old post. Oriental lilies are easy to grow with big rewards when they bloom.

Oriental Lily Muscadet 

Oriental Lily Dizzy 

Oriental Lily Dizzy 

Oriental Lily Stargazer

My wife really loves the colors of the Stargazer!

Oriental Lily Stargazer

Oriental lilies are great for flower arrangements. Debbie has made several flower arrangements and placed them throughout the house!

I hope everyone has a Great Weekend!!

 

 

Japanese Iris in Bloom

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Ocean Mist

Our Japanese Iris are in full bloom at the moment. If there is a flower that stops you in your tracks, this is it. Each year our plants have gotten larger and this year they have more flowers than ever. With all the rain we have had this year, they are spectacular!

 

Japanese iris require moist soil in order to bloom.

Ocean Mist is my favorite Japanese Iris, pictures above. I have included several pictures of Ocean Mist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent post: Building Screech Owl Nesting Box

2013 Post: Beautiful Japanese Iris

 

 

 

 

 

Siberian Iris

The Siberian Iris this year are very beautiful but it seems that they have more foliage than flowers! I took a few photographs yesterday after a mid day rain, you can see a few water drops in the photos.

I also have more baby iris plants than I need, it appears all the rain we had last year scatted the seed everywhere!

Cathy at Words and Herbs posted jus the other day about her new garden wheels, so I thought I would post a picture of mine too! Cathy has a wonderful site, she loves gardening too!

My white rhododendron are about to bloom as well as a couple of my Japanese Iris, hope to post a few pictures later in the week. 🙂

 

Check out my Bluebird Houses, they make great gifts and you will enjoy watching the Bluebird nest! Building Bluebird Houses are fun and rewarding.

 

 

 

Growing Oriental Lily Bulbs

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Picture of Oriental Lily Star Gazer taken in my garden, summer of 2013

I love to grow Oriental Lilies, so thinking ahead I order more Oriental Lily bulbs for my garden from John Scheepers Inc. a few weeks ago. I have purchased bulbs from many different sources, including the big box stores but I have found that the quality and size of bulbs are better from John Scheepers.

I received my order of oriental lily bulbs on Friday, packaged by variety. This order included three variety, Star Gazer, Lizzy Dizzy and Muscadet. I’ve now decided that I am going to place another order later today.

Now thru spring is the best time to plant lily bulbs, that is if your ground is thawed enough to dig. I planned to order more bulbs so back in October I had prepared a new garden bed for these bulbs.

Oriental Lilies produce enormous beautiful flowers on tall stems in a variety of colors and are easy to grow in zone 5 to 8. These oddly, scaly, bearded bulbs will produce a fancy trumpet shaped flower that is extremely fragrant, their fragrance is fabulous. There are other varieties of lilies like the Easter lily, Tiger lily, Asiatic lily, etc. but the Oriental Lily is the only one that is fragrant.

Before planting your lilies, pick an area with filter sunshine, avoid an area that is windy and receives the hot afternoon sun. The most important factor when preparing your soil for Oriental Lilies is drainage. Lilies need drainage and cannot be sitting in stagnant water especially during winter. Clay soil is rich in nutrients but lilies will not grow well in clay soil. Oriental lilies prefer a rich, moist and well-drained soil. I improve my soil by adding organic peak, leaf mold and composted manure. I also add crushed oyster shells, like you would give your chickens to eat and work all of this into the planting area about a foot deep. After you have the planting area ready, plant bulbs 6 to 8 inch deep. I plant the same variety in groups of three or five for more of an impact when they bloom.

Blooming in my area starts in July and continues thru August, I have even had some blooms into September depending on our summer heat. Oriental lilies will often need a little extra support because they tend to get top-heavy when in bloom. Summer rainstorms and wind can also toss them around. Many variety can reach 5 to 5 feet tall.

As blooming begins, take care not to get their pollen stains on your cloths. See the picture above of the stamens full of pollen. When I cut my lilies for arrangements I always cut the flowers early in the morning when it is cool just as the flower buds are opening. This is also the best time to cut the stamens before the pollen matures.

If you have flowers you leave in the garden, be sure to gently remove the blossoms as they fade to encourage blooming and to keep plants from using all their energy producing seeds. In the fall, once the leaves and stems turn yellow; cut the plant back to the ground. Do not pull the stems as this will cause damage to the bulb.

I  love Oriental lilies for their beautiful flowers and their fragrance is fabulous. They make great flower arrangements too! This summer I will be posting flower pictures from these bulbs. 🙂

other post on my Oriental Lilies

My Work

My Japanese Iris

Two years ago I planted several Japanese iris that I had gotten locally from a guy in Saluda, North Carolina. The plants I had gotten were small but I was determined to give them the care they needed to grow and flower. Once you have seen Japanese iris flowers, you will remember them because they are beautiful!

The first picture upper left is Rosea, all the other pictures are Ocean Mist. My favorite is the Ocean Mist, it has grown more this year than the first year and seems to like it’s location. I will be diividing it this year so that I have more plants.

If you want to grow Japanese iris, I will tell you that they have special soil requirements. They like a slightly acid soil between 5.5 and 6.5. Rich, loose soil with organic matter, I add aged cow manure and compost. You can give them 12-12-12 fertilizer the second year. They are heavy feeders and require a lot of water.

They are worth all the extra effort, once they bloom you will know what I am talking about!

Wouldn’t you like to have a bluebird house for your garden!

Thank you for visiting my blog, please leave a comment.
Michael