I is for Irises, Iresine, and Insects
Season 7, Episode 23, May 14, 2025
It’s been so chilly in Carol’s garden and mine so let’s wander down the virtual garden path together. We’re both still buying and planting and having such a good time!
We are gardening through the alphabet, and today, we focused on the letter I. If you want to listen now, here’s the early listening link. Thanks for being a subscriber!
This week we discussed all types of irises for our flower topic. I recently made a video about my mother-in-law’s pink bearded irises. People seemed to enjoy it. Do you have any passalong plants in your garden? Please share!
If you want to learn more, look up the American Iris Society
Also, Carol found a Schreiner's Iris Gardens documentary on YouTube. Schreiner’s Iris Gardens is a longtime family-owned nursery. I ordered some bearded irises from them this year. Just for the record, I ordered ‘Sunny Glitter,’ ‘Montmartre,’ and ‘Cantina.’ These are all going in my purple and gold section in the back garden.
We also talked about iresine which is a common southern plant, but Carol is growing it for the first time this year. It’s also known as chicken gizzard plant.
Our vegetable topic was dealing with pests in natural ways. A play on Integrated Pest Management. Carol suggested Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden by Jessica Walliser. (Amazon link) which is a great book on companion planting.
We also discussed hornworms and what the actual moth is. If it’s a tomato hornworm, it’s not the fancy White-lined sphinx moth or the Clearwing Sphinx moth. It’s Manduca quinquemaculata, the five-spotted hawkmoth.
On the Bookshelf this week is The Kindest Garden: A Practical Guide to Regenerative Gardening by Marian Boswall and Jason Ingram. (Amazon link.) Again, kind gardens are good gardens.
For our dirt, we had on our minds the 80th anniversary of VE or Victory in Europe Day. It’s also the 80th anniversary of the Peace rose. A children’s book: A Rose Named Peace: How Francis Meilland Created a Flower of Hope for a World at War by Barbara Carroll Roberts (Author) and Bagram Ibatoulline (Illustrator) (Amazon link) would be a great introduction of the rose to children. I watched Britain and the Blitz on Netflix which just premiered, and Carol read Mrs Miles's Diary: The Wartime Journal of a Housewife on the Home Front by Constance Miles (Amazon Link.)
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