Perennials are wonderful to have in the garden. Many are almost carefree once they are planted. Oh yes, you have to dig up and divide every few years for optimum bloom, but other than that, you are pretty free of work once the plants are planted. But you do sacrifice something. The sacrifice is that generally perennials have a short blooming period. You have to enjoy them while they are open. Many gardeners try to find perennials of the same type that bloom early, mid season and late. Or you try to find different types of the same perennials that will extend the bloom season. To prolong the season, many artists have tried to capture the beauty of the perennials that they love in paintings, sculpture, ceramics or whichever art they practice.
One of my favorite perennials is the iris. The Japanese iris, the siberian iris, the bearded iris or whatever iris. The GardenLady loves them all and wishes her garden could hold all off them.
Many aritists around the world over the centuries have created art of the iris. From ancient times to modern times, from the amateur to the professional, in paintings, sculpture, glass art, ceramics, etc. the iris has been memorialized. Here are some examples.
TheGardenLady received this question from Jessica.
I was wondering what you thought about Yerba buena. I discovered this plant today and love the lemony minty smell to it. I wanted to know if it’s a dorm friendly plant. I’ll be living in Mills College in Oakland, CA. I was thinking of buying a small bamboo shoot and another plant (yerba buena?). Maybe you can recommend other plants the do well in dorm rooms and has a nice fragrance (not to strong)? I also like plants that can be used for different things, like made into a tea to sooth the throat. Something like that.
Yerba buena is Spanish for good herb. Another common name is Oregon-tea. The Latin name is Satureja (savory) douglasii, sometimes called Clinopodium douglasii and is in the Lamiaceae or Mint family. The common name Yerba Buena has been applied to several species of mint, especially Spearmint (Mentha spicata), but in the West it generally refers to Sartureja douglasii.
Sartureja douglassi is native to western N. America. It grows in redwood forests and was much used by tribes in the Pacific Northwest. It needs moist, sandy, slightly acid loam and partial shade when grown outdoors. It is used as a trailing plant for the front of window boxes and hanging baskets in semi-shade. TheGardenLady has never heard of it’s being used as an indoor plant, but since most mints will grow indoors, give it a try. Just know that it is a creeping perennial that likes to spread up to 6 ft. across. So give it a big pot, put it in a window with good light but not sun and keep the soil moist. If you are lucky, you will be able to make a mild tea from the leaves.
The article below has been going around the internet and is being posted so that TheGardenLady readers can see what creative gardeners can accomplish. To see more of the art check out this site or this site.
Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan. But this is no alien creation – the designs have been cleverly planted.
Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye. Instead, different colours of rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.
As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge.
A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants, the colours created by using different varieties, in Inakadate in Japan
The village has now earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry and this year the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior, both on horseback, are visible in a pair of fields adjacent to the town hall.
More than 150,000 vistors come to Inakadate, where just 8,700 people live, every summer to see the extraordinary murals.
Each year hundreds of volunteers and villagers plant four different varieties of rice in late May across huge swathes of paddy fields.And over the past few years, other villages have joined in with the plant designs.
Napolean on horseback can be seen from the skies, created by precision planting and months of planning between villagers and farmers in Inkadate Fictional warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife Osen appear in fields in the town of Yonezawa, Japan
The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori village of Inakadate, 600 miles north of Toyko, where the tradition began in 1993.
Another famous rice paddy art venue is in the town of Yonezawa in the Yamagata prefecture.
This year’s design shows the fictional 16th-century samurai warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife, Osen, whose lives feature in television series Tenchijin.
Various artwork has popped up in other rice-farming areas of Japan this year, including designs of deer dancers.
Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other rice-farming areas of Japan such as this image of Doraemon and deer dancers
The farmers create the murals by planting little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru roman variety to create the coloured patterns between planting and harvesting in September.
The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000 square metres of paddy fields. From ground level, the designs are invisible, and viewers have to climb the mock castle tower of the village office to get a glimpse of the work.
Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew out of meetings of the village committee.
Closer to the image, the careful placement of thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seenThe different varieties of rice plant grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces
In the first nine years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year.
But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention. In 2005 agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art.
A year later, organisers used computers to precisely plot planting of the four differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life.
I recently had some plants that I transplanted From 1.6L pots to 3.5L pots. For the first sized pot I used a mix of plain peatmoss/perlite/topsoil/black earth. I noticed that I had to water these plants every 2/3 days depending on the heat outside. Now that I’ve put my babies in “new shoes”. I’ve used a new soil mix to fill in the rest of the space in the new pots. The soil I used is Schultz’s moisture plus w/time released nutrients (0.08-0.12-0.08). I am completely unsure now when to water because 2 days after the transplant and watering the soil still feels fairly fresh. I tried running some water through one of the plants to make sure it’s not clogged, which it isn’t. It”s slowly dripping out. I guess my first question is, if my particular plants are prone to root rot, is this new soil going to cause this if I over water them? My second question is, what would be some tips with this soil on when to water it being they are gallon pots?
You have asked excellent questions. This GardenLady called Schultz’s for the answer. They said that you were doing the best thing for plants and especially for seedlings that are prone to root rot by using their moisture plus w/time released nutrients because the crystals are mixed so well in the potting soil that they help control the amount of water released into the soil. This prevents too much water in one spot which causes root rot. Also the soil is kept consistently wet from the top to the bottom of the pot. The way the crystals work is that they hold the water and then continue to release water into the soil until all the water in the crystals were released.
I asked how to tell if the plant needs more water. I was told that with the crystals it takes twice as long for the plant to be watered – so if your plant needed to be watered in 2/3 days, with the crystals in the soil, the soil will dry out in 4 to six days. I asked how to check if the soil needs watering. I was told that you stick your finger in the soil and if the soil clings to your finger, it doesn’t need watering. I asked if there were a device to stick in the soil to see if there were enough water and was told that was a good idea and he will suggest inventing such a device.
TheGardenLady wrote an article on caring for plants in time of drought. Schultz said that you can use their crystals on plants that have already been planted. Work them into the soil, water the plant and put a mulch over the crystals and soil where you put them to help retain the moisture.
For more information check out their website and go to Products and click on Moisture Plus Potting Mix or call their product specialists at 1-800 257 2941
