Brent and Becky's Bulbs

The 2011 Spring Bulb Catalog

    I love Daffodils and have been "planting" them since I was a toddler. When they bloom I feel happy and that beautiful sense of new beginnings that is possible with spring. Daffodils also help me feel connected with my family in Southern California because it is another flower my dad grows and shows.
     Ah yes flower shows. I have helped out at so many with staging blooms or as a clerk. When I was younger we would enter as Junior Growers. Going to so many shows means I have met some big names in the business/ hobby. Two years ago I met Brent from "Brent and Becky's Bulbs" at the National show in Murphy's, California. He encouraged me by giving me a card and said get one of their catalogs. You can go the website here https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/  He was so happy to see a "young person" at the show and hoped I would grow my own daffodils once I had some land. It was very encouraging and I learned a lot about his business.
     Now that I do actually have a little bit of land I am memorizing the catalog. It is so tempting to order everything I could dream of for the backyard. But, I am practicing good self control. We simply can not afford for me to buy every daffodil I want. (I want them all). And I would like to try some of the other plants from the catalog like a Tulip, some Anemones, and Muscari that will act as shoes and socks for the daffodils. Oh it's exciting. But these others are risky since they tend to like colder climes.

Brent and I at the 2010 National Daffodil Show in Murphy's, CA

The Great Iris Divide

Last Year's Iris Bloom

     Last spring I was delighted to find that our house came with some very nice and classic looking Iris. But, there are so many of them. It looks like the previous owners never dug them up and divided them for at least 5 years. They are growing on top of each other. It really is a mess of tubers/ rhizomes.
     Since fall is the best time to dig up your bulbs and tubers I set about cleaning up the Iris bed. What I learned is that an Iris tuber does not bloom from the same place twice. It must generate a new portion for the following year's blooms. Over time the old parts can rot away or are no longer useful. For this reason it is a good to dig them up every few years to clean out the bad stuff. It also allows you to create new clumps with the good portions.
     Since this was maybe never done I had a huge task on my hands. Here's my progress so far.

 

Before Digging- Iris are the tall spiky leafed plants

Dug up Iris

Large tuber- it bloomed from the center part

Same large tuber- they look like lobsters to me.
The bottom portion is no longer useful.

  
















 
   After digging them up with a pitch fork (bought specifically for this task and turning the compost) I was ready to divide and break off the old parts. Sometimes it was really easy to tell what to break off. There were a lot of times I had no clue what I was doing though. I decided that if it looked healthy then I shouldn't chop it up.

Small good portions divided

     I separated my Iris by size. The tiny singlets are on the left. Midsize are in the middle. And the big ones are on the right. There are at least 30 big and midsize tubers. So, if you think you'd like some I am giving some away to good homes. My dad and I are already planning an exchange. :)

All the Iris after division

One particularly lobster like Iris

Should I break off the little ones?

     If you managed to read through this entire post - then you are either my parents, very curious about Iris, or wanting to see my after photo. Sorry you'll have to wait for the after photo because I don't have them in the ground. So, now I have a question about the tuber in the picture above. Should I let the little ones develop more before breaking them off? Or break them off now?
 

3rd Dahlia

Meeting Famous Bloggers

 
     I only follow a few blogs. One of them is a fabulous design blog called Design*Sponge. They are a big deal in the design world. I love this blog because they feature cool DIY projects, "before and afters", and the icing on the cake for me is a weekly post about flowers/ flower arranging. (See last week's post on Dahlias www.designsponge.com - the pictures are beautiful).

Stacks of the book

   The creator of Design*Sponge, Grace Bonney, just published a book that encompasses all that is great about the website. There is a section on flower arranging which sold the book for me. (Did you get that I like the floral components of design?) I am hoping to get a bit better at showing off my flowers inside the house. 

   So, this week I went to the book tour party in the San Francisco Anthropology store with my friend Kirsten. Yes, the Kirsten who did the wonderful flowers for our wedding. (Now Kirsten has a flower business Fairy Tale Flowers)!
     It was an amazing party! We snagged seats at the crafting portion where we made and personalized our own wax seals. Grace used Kirsten's seal for the demo.

       

Then I got my book signed and ate yummy cupcakes.

Me and D*S creator Grace Bonney

Lemon and Chocolate cupcakes

 

 Then we browsed the store while eating cookies, sipping Prosecco, and listening to the band play.

Everything was orange and gold to match the D*S book cover.

Tiny terrarium necklaces

 We took our pictures with the interactive cookie backdrop. YUM!
It was an all out party. Way to go D*S team

Interactive Cookie Photo Backdrop

I met a photographer during the craft time who took some great photos. She wrote about it on her website too.  www.jetkatdesign.com