Yesterday was the Grand Opening of the Pearl Farmer’s Market with all the booth’s cutting their red ribbons and it was a fantastic day. Lots and lots and lots of people. We did end up closing a little early because of the rain – yippee for the rain! (We ended up getting just under 2 inches here at the ranch.) I sold out of the 4″ Peacock Orchids/Absyyinian Glads and out of my bare root daylilies, Hyperion and Mixed. I will plan to bring extra bare root daylilies next week. Many of the vendors sold out of product early. It was great to see lots of families with small and large kids going through the market, and several of the kids were already gardeners buying different small plants.
Next week, Marty will be manning the booth at the Pearl Farmer’s Market, since I will be giving the daylily seminar at the Festival of Flowers (10:30 am at the Alzafar Auditorium on 1604). Please be kind to Marty, he is just getting into the knowledge base of gardening. He will have orders ready for pickup for people who have ordered through our website for ”Pearl Brewery” shipping/pick up. If you have a special request of a daylily or bearded iris for us to bring to the market, just send me an e-mail at jonelle@jd2ranch.com and we will see that we bring it with us that next Saturday.
At the Pearl Farmer’s Market this last Saturday a lot of people were interested in our Peacock Orchids. Peacock Orchids, otherwise known as Absyyinian Glads, are really gladioli. The flowers look like they should be an orchid, hence one of the common names. These are a perennial glad in south Texas. They are also a very easy plant. Plant them in full sun to part shade (as low as 1 – 2 hours of sun). You can also plant them in large containers with other plants. They will come up in the spring, and the scapes should come up in the beginning of summer just like a regular glad. The scape will come up and then the flowers will open one by one. After it has flowered, you let it die back naturally over the summer. You can pull the foliage away to clean up the area when you can gently tug at the leaves and they pull away easily. Leave them alone and next spring they will reemerge with some new babies. Over the years they will continue to grow and you will have more blooms. If you want you can divide them, by simply digging them up, separating the corms, and replanting them. If you want to fertilize them – use a long term, slow release fertilizer, bone meal, or compost in the fall, in early spring, and/or just after they have finished blooming. You can also use liquid fertilizer (Hasta Gro, Miracle Gro, or Peters 20-20-20) or compost tea in the early spring and summer before they have bloomed. I think you will agree that Peacoc Orchids are an easy, carefree, and beautiful addition to your gardens.
JD2 Ranch, Inc.
grower specializing in daylilies, iris, and seasonal cut flowers
Pearl Farmer’s Market
May 9, 2009
Happy Mother’s Day
These are some of the items we will be bringing to the market on May 2nd. If you have any specific requests, please e-mail me at jonelle@jd2ranch.com or call me at 830 393-5233. Please check out our website: www.jd2ranch.com to see photos of our plants. Our gardening blog will also have additional information on the farmer’s market and on gardening topics.
Daylilies
Potted: Bitsy, Hyperion, Mixed
You Angel You – specialty
Marked By Lydia – specialty
In Style -specialty
Coronal Light – specialty Bare root: Hyperion
Mixed
Other Plants
Bearded Iris – 1 gal pots – various
Peacock orchids (Abyssinian glads) – 4″ pots
Sedums – 4″ pots
Dahlias – Bishops Children 4″ pots
We had our first club garden tour today by the 3 Oaks TEEA (Texas Extension Education Association). About 20 members strolled through the gardens with JoNelle. Since this has been a late season so far, there weren’t that many blooms on the daylilies, but a few specialty ones, Forbidden Fantasy, Fiery Temper, and Francois Verhaert were blooming. The bearded iris Hello Darkness was also blooming. Lots of good questions and interest in both several annuals and perennial plants. The members were able to see lots of daylily scapes coming up, so by June 6th we should have much more in bloom.
Yesterday I had a couple of different bearded iris that were beginning to bloom. The first was Hello Darkness, a tall bearded, which as you can see is a dark beauty as the name implies. The second and quite a surprise was YoYo which is a dwarf. I had just looked at my potted bearded iris the day before and I had not noticed any scapes (flower stalks), and then yesterday I saw color in the pots.
YoYo, bearded iris
There were 2 different pots of YoYo blooming. This is a great iris for the front of your border since it is a dwarf (about 8 inches tall).
This afternoon I saw another couple of scapes starting on some other iris. It looks like the iris may be a bit late this year, but they are about to start blooming – yippee!
Flowering plants that overwinter and multiply by means on fleshy stems of leaves are called bulbs. The bulbs we grow in our gardens today are native to temperate zones all over the world, the woodlands, meadows and mountains of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and North America. The Dutch have been extremely successful over the centuries in collection and hybridizing new species of bulbs and improving them for reliable garden performance.
Tulips in particular, once played an important role in the Dutch economy. There is no easier plant to cultivate than a bulb. Planted at the right time, in a loose, well-draining soil, bulbs will bloom punctually year after year and even spread (“naturalize”) if conditions are to their liking.By planting a sequence of spring-, summer- and fall-flowering bulbs at the appropriate time, you can enjoy their blooms practically year ‘round.
Fall (late September through late November) – Plant hardy, spring-flowering bulbs: tulips, narcissus (includes all types of daffodils), crocus, eranthis (winter aconites), erythronium, fritillaria, hyacinths snowdrops, scilla, hardy cyclamen, lilies. In California and milder areas of the Southwest, also plant ranunculus, freesias, anemones and paperwhites outdoors. Store tulips, crocus and hyacinths in refrigerator for 6-8 weeks before planting. In all regions, store potted bulbs in refrigerator for forcing indoors.
Winter – In California, plant prechilled- hardy bulbs outdoors. In all regions, remove sprouted bulbs from refrigerator for indoor forcing.
JD2 Ranch, Inc.
grower specializing in daylilies, iris, and seasonal cut flowers
Pearl Farmer’s Market
May 2, 2009
These are some of the items we will be bringing to the market on May 2nd. If you have any specific requests, please e-mail me at jonelle@jd2ranch.com or call me at 830 393-5233. Please check out our website: www.jd2ranch.com to see photos of our plants. Our gardening blog will also have additional information on the farmer’s market and on gardening topics.
Daylilies
Potted: Winsome Lady, Strawberry Candy, Bitsy, Chorus Line, Royal Palace Prince
Mulberry Connection – specialty
Marked By Lydia – specialty
In Style -specialty
Coronal Light – specialty Bare root: Hyperion
Mixed
