Fall Rains are here

Yes, the fall rains are here already! We have had steady rain days for about two weeks now. I am amazed at how soon the fall weather has caught up to us. The nights have been cold -- with a few frost warnings already being sounded.

Well with the fall rains comes a great time for planting -- siberian iris love this type of weather, daylilies and iris also do well with fall plantings. The rain during this time of year really allows them to dig their roots in deep and get a great start.

Happy Planting! http://www.oakhillgarden.com

Fall planting tips

It is shipping time for us and planting time for you. If you have not yet received your iris and daylilies -- they are on the way!! We only have a handful of orders remaining to be shipped.

We thought it would be good to give you a few tips for planting your new additions. First, remove the plants from the boxes as soon as you can -- they need air and of course water. Make sure to soak your iris and daylilies in water for a minimum of one hour and maximum of 24 hours -- I usually prefer to do it overnight. This is a basic rehydration process that wakes up the roots and gets them ready for their new home. Take your time and cultivate the soil well -- until it is easy to move -- here in Indiana we have a lot of clay soil and so this process is very important in helping the roots find space. When you place the plants in the ground water the roots directly before placing the rest of the dirt on top of them -- this is especially important for daylilies. This will keep them well watered for the first day while they begin to settle in. Also add any fertilizers like alfalfa or green sand or some of our magic soil to the root area before watering and recovering with top soil.
If you pick up your plants at a local nursery or green house or if you picked them up from us here at the garden make sure to cut down the tops also to about 3-6 inches tall -- do this before planting. It will allow more energy to go into the root development which is more necessary than foliage survival during the fall.

Make sure to get your orders in now -- there is still at least one more month to get your plants in -- check out our specials

Happy gardening!

Planning for next year

I have already noticed a shift in the amount of light during the day and evening as well as a distinct temperature change. The sun is setting quicker and the days are growing shorter -- it seems like time has speeded up on us already. We are still working steadfastly in the garden - resituating iris for spectacular new bed arrangements and bringing in new plants for a fresh new look overall! Next year we should see an array of new colors and plants.

We will be resuming shipments next week on Tuesday.

There is also a great selection of plants on sale now on the website -- take a look and enjoy the low prices while they last! http://www.oakhillgarden.com/99centsale.html
Make sure to get your orders in before we sell out on the sales -- if you get your order in by the second week in August you should be planting by the beginning of September -- just in time for the fall rains.
Happy planting!!

Daylilly Festival this weekend

We will be celebrating the Fourth of July with a festival in the garden this weekend. The daylillies are blooming all around and we would love to share our beautiful blooms with all of you -- so please take an hour and stop by and enjoy the colors! The garden will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from around 9am until 6pm each of those days. If you are travelling from far please give us a call ahead just in case there is rain sometimes the conditions are not great after the rain.

Things are really taking shape here at the garden and if you visit you will see our work in progress. We are developing the soil in the iris beds, we are starting several new beds for additional daylillies and of course just the other general work is all in progress, so this is a great opportunity to learn about all the things we do here in the garden and find out what is going on!

I will begin shipping orders out again on Monday -- I don't want plants sitting around waiting for the holiday to be over!

Whatever you do this holiday weekend -- enjoy Mother Nature's beauty!
Have a fantastic holiday!

Time to get to work!!

Well the iris blooms are all gone and now it's time to get to work! Actually we have already started rebuilding the gardens -- we are tackling gardens one and two this year and finishing the fourth garden. I have started pulling plants out of the rows -- and actually doing some shipping so you may see a package from us in the next few weeks in your mailbox or on your doorstep! We are laying down compost on the beds to enrich the soil and at the same time we are adding alfalfa.
I have heard from several people this year about not having enough blooms in their garden and I would just like to let you know that this has been a rough year with all the rains and then the longer cold season. For some people the issue is merely separating the plants which should be done at least every three years and then giving them a boost with compost, alfalfa or something your local garden store might offer. We do have a special mixture that I make up here at the garden which we use in our potted plants (for local sale) that we sell for our online guests. You can find the soil for sale at http://www.oakhillgarden.com/magicsoil.html we also sell vermicompost and that is on the same page. Either one is a great option for your plants.

Did I mention the daylillies are looking fantastic!!! More on our beautiful daylillies next time!!

While the cat's away....

... the mice will play. That's how the adage goes anyway.

Tom is going away this week and so it's time for me to put on a super sale!! Watch the website for the flowers I will be putting on sale -- there should be a new sale page by Monday (the day he leaves).

I spent Saturday morning at the European (farmer's) market -- what great fun! I spoke with lots of gardening folks who wanted a little more information about their iris. It seems a lot of people are unsure of what to do with iris and what they need. Iris are so easy to plant and care for and they are so versatile. We have iris planted under trees in full shade as well as iris planted in full and direct sunlight and they do equally well. We don't spend a lot of extra time watering our iris, except when we put in a new bed or new row -- usually we let nature take care of them.
The festival time continues even as I type this and so I need to get back outside!

Watch for the sale!!! It's coming....

Open to the Public this weekend

Well our festival continues through this weekend. We are open Friday, Saturday and Sunday the 6th through the 8th and of course by appointment if you can't make it out during these days. The iris are definitely still blooming and we have not yet peaked!
We are actually going to the European Market on Saturday as well. So we will be selling potted plants at both the festival and the Market on Saturday.

I just finished with the last application of nematodes on the garden. Today was probably the most perfect day for the application since we had a good rain yesterday and it stayed warm and we are to have more rain either tonight or just later this week.

Well the spring rains and all the great sunshine we have had lately are really making the blooms pop in the gardens .. hopefully you can come out to take a look.

Festival time

Well this is a quick update -- it's Festival Time here at the Garden.

Plants are about two weeks behind in blooming this year so things are not in full bloom yet. The early bloomers are displaying their colors but the big color splash is still to come -- we are estimating the BEST time for blooms will be the first week in June. So we are gearing up for a Full Festival weekend on June 6, 7, and 8.
We are open to the public pretty much from April until October by appointment - (just give us a call to make sure we will be here) -- but the time to really visit is during the Bloom Festival.

I will post an update on the garden soon. For now I need to get back outside and enjoy the beautiful day we are having in the garden!

The blooms are arriving

Wow! The day after I wrote my last post blooms started appearing -- how's that for asking and receiving! :-)
Yes, the early bloomers are gracing us and some .. are already leaving! The very beautiful Snow Drop is already in bloom, as is early yellow and one other variety that is a darker maroon color. The white and the black are in our front yard and the early yellows are in the garden -- I'm betting as I walk out this morning the entire row of them will be in bloom! All we had to do was go through one tornado warning and several days of rain.

I have spent a lot of time building new beds for several siberians. We have had to replant them in new locations and we are starting to add a few new varieties to our list of siberians as well. Next year we will have some very gorgeous blooms.
The siberian beds are a combination of peat moss, alfalfa, and our own home grown compost. I take that mix and till it into the soil then plant the roots in.

I have also spent some time working on updating our web site. We have added a new special for Mother's day. http://www.oakhillgarden.com/mothers.html
It's the first year we have tried package deals.

Well it's out to the garden -- the sun has been calling my name since 6:30!

Waiting for the blooms...

I've been waiting, at first patiently, but as more time passes I become much more anxious... waiting for those first blooms.
Yesterday, even though it was freezing cold outside, I went to pull a few orders, I cut through three blooms... :-( I was so sad that the first blooms I saw, although still nestled quietly inside the leaves of the plants waiting for just the right moment, were blooms I had to cut off so that I could ship a couple of plants to customers. But the one heartening point was that it made me realize beyond a doubt there will be blooms aplenty again this year.

We are planning on scheduling our Iris Festival during the Memorial day weekend this year. So instead of spending lots of time and money on gas you can just stop over and browse the garden and enjoy a delightful day of iris exploration. It will definitely be an amazing site.

We have also setting up a couple of Mother's Day packages available on our web site.
Oakhill Garden

Snow showers = May flowers?

Yes, I said Spring was here but... I know I saw snow mixed with the rain earlier this evening on my windows!

We had a great week of weeding in the garden and it all ended on Friday. And then ... the rains came... I was going to entitle my post April showers bring May flowers ... but then I saw snow! Once again .. snow in April .. so does snow in April bring great flowers in May? It has definitely been one whacky year for the weather conditions.

I drove by and talked with a few other gardeners today -- growers of daylilies, siberian iris, hostas and several other plant types. Learned a few interesting tidbits and maybe some ideas for making our garden grow even better. One of those tips I will share with you now .. they grow some of their daylilies amongst their pine trees and the daylilies love it!! I was surprized to hear that the daylilies love that sandy, acidic soil underneath the pines .. but I guess they do .. and the needles make a great mulch .. keeping the weeds and some bugs down. So if you have pine trees around but you don't want to move your daylilies you could still use the needles for a mulch. Anyway, I thought it was something interesting!

Spring is here -- Finally!!

This has been our first full week back working in the garden. The strength of the winter took it's toll on the timing of our first ventures into the garden. The winter showed it's head with downed naming sticks and a very muddy plot. Although Iris are very hardy plants -- we never want to proceed into the garden too early -- iris don't like to have their roots compacted with wet soil -- so hardy yet so delicate -- just like their blooms.

I also sent the first of the spring shipments out -- just today. I know so many people have been waiting for their orders -- and finally they will begin arriving.... This week we could ship long bearded iris -- so those are on the way. Next week it looks like we will be shipping iris and daylilly orders!! It seems every year people are jumping for joy at the first sign of sun -- forgetting the possibility of just a little more winter -- well the time is here -- it really is Spring.

http://www.oakhillgarden.com/