This might just be a great year for irises. I admit to a particular love of the iris. It’s low maintenance, unlike the rose. Individual iris rhizomes are expensive. Not all make it once planted in the fall. They just don’t plant right. But if an iris “takes” you are truly rewarded in the spring
Daffodils are long gone. Violet have pretty much had it. My one healthy azalea looks pretty good. The other two are circling the drain. The Kousa dogwood is getting ready to spring to glory. A few Jobes’ tree spikes seem to make an old tree young again.
Primary season is just around the corner. Get ready for the robo calls and mailers.
Argggh—they have begun.
Tom Perriello has wasted no time developing attack ads based on that disastrous health care bill the House just passed.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kad9lGbc_xI
Alt-right’s Richard Spencer leads torch-bearing protesters defending Confederate statue
RICHMOND —
Self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer led a large group carrying torches and chanting “You will not replace us” Saturday in Charlottesville, protesting plans to remove a Confederate monument that has played an outsize role in this year’s race for Virginia governor.
“What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer said at the first of two rallies he led in the college town where he once attended the University of Virginia.
At the second rally, dozens of torch-bearing protesters gathered in a city park in the evening and chanted “You will not replace us” and “Russia is our friend,” local television footage shows. Spencer was not shown addressing that gathering, but he tweeted a photo of himself standing in the crowd carrying what appeared to be a bamboo tiki torch.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/alt-rights-richard-spencer-leads-torch-bearing-protesters-defending-lee-statue/2017/05/14/766aaa56-38ac-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_vaspencer-nhp-1055am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.83f3991490d2
Pereillo and Richard Spencer got into a Twitter war. Corey Stewart and Richard Spencer are buddies now.
That is just gross and disgusting if that is indeed true. I would like to hear Corey renounce this dude.
That rally in Charlottesville seemed very much like a KKK meeting.
Mayor of Virginia city targeted by anti-Semitic tweets after criticizing marchers
Sun May 14, 2017 | 7:12 PM EDT
By Sharon Bernstein
The mayor of the Virginia college town of Charlottesville was the target of anti-Semitic tweets on Sunday after speaking out against white nationalists who converged on a local park carrying blazing torches the night before.
Mayor Mike Signer said two protests led on Saturday by Richard Spencer, a leader of the “alt-right” movement, came on the same day the city held its annual Festival of Cultures event, which celebrates diversity in the home of the University of Virginia.
“You’re seeing anti-Semitism in these crazy tweets I’m getting and you’re seeing a display of torches at night, which is reminiscent of the KKK,” Signer, who is Jewish, said in a phone interview. “They’re sort of a last gasp of the bigotry that this country has systematically overcome.”
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN18A13X
This is really getting ugly. Is Stewart okay with this?
Stewart thankfully kept his mouth shut.
Roger Ailes dead at age 77. Apparently his death was sudden.
Condolences to his family.
My goodness so much has gone into hell in a hand basket. I was happy last week to find out about a low cost apartment complex in Manassas City which opens their application process but once a year, for only 24 hours. So, since I need to move, and once lived at said complex from 94 to 99, I happily applied. I filled out the application. I provided my W2, three months of pay stubs, mail to prove I was a former resident, 2 forms of photo ID, all of which proved that I am who I say I am, and that I am employed these 19 years by the City of Manassas. The one thing I was lacking was my social security card which I haven’t seen or needed in forever. So? My application was flat out refused due to my lack of an actual social security card. When I questioned why a paper card was necessary, Paige said that without it, “you can’t prove who you are.” Passport can’t prove? DL can’t prove? W2 can’t prove? Paystubs can’t prove? City I’D can’t prove?
So if I get arrested tomorrow for some foolishness or another can I claim that I don’t really exist since I don’t have a social security card?
I can’t tell you how many years it has been since I have had a social security card. That stinks!
Moon, I LOVE irises too! We had some purple ones at a previous home and I always looked forward to them every spring. And they smell amazing!
The purples were amazing this year. I am not sure if mine smell good or not. I have a compromised sense of smell which I often think is a blessing but not in this case.
MoonHowler,
Mine came up but unfortunately one of the past rain storms knocked them all down except for a few. Last week I planed some giant lavender gems which seem to do pretty well for me every year. They are just now starting to come up, just as long as I can keep those little bastard squires from digging them up.
I tried the netting over them but it is a pain in the ass to keep up with it as the plant grows so I’ve stuck with the once or twice a week spraying of Cridder Ridder which seems to help. Those furry a-holes already dug up all of my tulips I planted in the fall before I could get to them.
Those little bastards love daffodils and tulips. I haven’t had trouble with them and iris though. I planted my new ones sloppy.
If you put in new ones, do NOT plant different colors near each other…I mean plant pinks on one side of the yard and the purples elsewhere and then the orange somewhere else. They somehow blend. Those fancy hybrids just like to cross pollinate or something. Not sure how it happens but mine morphed.
Question for you Moon…
My one healthy azalea looks pretty good. The other two are circling the drain. The Kousa dogwood is getting ready to spring to glory. A few Jobes’ tree spikes seem to make an old tree young again.
I’ve got a few dead spots in my azaleas as well and was wondering why it was happening even after I spread my ‘azalea food’. Well, one day I was replacing some of my low voltage pathway lighting that run along the azalea bed. While digging out the wiring I noticed that certain parts of my bed were infected with grubs.
I put down grub control and waited a week or two but still had a pretty bad grub issue. I ended up digging up the mulch and dirt and mixed more grub control into the soil throughout the bed which seems to have finally gotten rid of them. The dead spots are slowly starting to come back. So, you may want to check for grubs before you write your azaleas off completely.
Not to be dumb but were they in the soil? I think mine might be a sunlight issue. It seems the one that gets the most light thrived and the other two went downhill depending on how much sunlight. The one in the most sun deprived area is the most puny. they aren’t all that far apart. I just don’t get much sunlight in the front yard.
MoonHowler,
Yes, the grubs look like fat, white worms and they are in the soil. If you took a garden trowel and dug down about 4 or 5 inches close to the base of the azalea (near the dead spots you have) you will see them if they are there.
If you do see them then that is most likely the issue, if you don’t see them they you may be right about it being a sunlight issue. If they are there just get some ‘grub control’ and mix that into the soil and water it once a day (if there is no rain). After a week or two add some azalea food and you may see them come back. The grubs eat up the roots which causes the issue.
My azaleas are in my front yard which doesn’t get much sun either (maybe 2-4 hours a day).
…also, I’m glad you mentioned the tree spikes. I’ve got two trees looking a bit ‘tired’ and just picked up some of the tree spikes yesterday on my lunch break; I’ve never used them before. I haven’t put them in yet but hopefully they will make my old trees young again as well 🙂
I have found them to be a real boost for tree health, esp as it pertains to flowering. I use them on the crepe myrtle also. Mine blooms the latest of any on the street.
Maybe I don’t start soon enough.
MoonHowler,
I’m surprised you would need them on a crepe myrtle. The ones in my neighborhood grow like crazy (at least a few feet per year). My neighbors top them every year in early spring and by the end of summer they are back up to where they were if not higher.
I’ve got a beautiful blue spruce I’m going to use my spikes on (should be putting them in today since the rain seems to have stopped). It’s looking quite sad for some reason this year and could use a boost.
This one is a grafted crepe myrtle. One side is pink, the other white. Not sure if that was a mistake or intentional. It rarely blooms until August. I have a huge maple that shades the whole front yard, including the myrtle so I think it is a matter of sunlight…or lack thereof. I just assumed it needed to be fertilized.
Send me a pic of your blue spruce. I love those trees.
I have a beautiful mini Japanese maple. Only half of it got leaves. Just when I was ready to just prune off the dead branches, a few leaves started growing. Now it appears to be ok but I have never seen a tree behave like this one. Bizarre winter.
My yard is heavily wooded so my azaleas just hang on, but they were the prettiest they’ve been this year. Lots of blooms.
Do they get any sunlight at all, Middleman?
I am sooo sick of rain and dreariness!!
It is pouring outside—again!!!!