Now is the time to plant this beautiful water-wise perennial
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To get beautiful iris blooms like this, plant rhizomes in midsummer. Find a huge selection of rhizomes at the Sacramento Iris Society sale this weekend. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)
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Bearded irises rank among the best drought-tolerant perennials for Sacramento gardens. And here’s your chance to get a bunch to plant now.
On Saturday and Sunday, July 16 and 17, the Sacramento Iris Society will host its annual rhizome sale at Shepard Garden and Arts Center. Think of it as a bare-root sale for irises; rhizomes are irises’ fleshy underground stems.
Mid to late summer is the best time to plant (or divide and transplant) bearded irises, which is why this plant sale is a mid-July staple. Bearded irises need very little summer irrigation, once established. Planted now, they’ll bloom next March and April.
The iris is named for the Greek goddess of the rainbow because the flowers come in so many hues. Find scores of varieties in every color (and many dazzling combinations) from pure white to (almost) pure black. Reblooming irises – which produce flowers in both spring and fall – will also be available.
Sale hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Parking and admission are free. Come early for the best selection. Club members will be on hand to offer advice, not just in choosing varieties but how to care for those rhizomes once you get them home and how to keep them thriving for years ahead.
Shepard Center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento.
Details: https://sacramentoirissocietydotcom.wordpress.com/
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 19
Dress warmly in layers – and get to work:
* Apply horticultural oil to fruit trees to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based oil to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback if pruned now. Save those until summer.)
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladioli for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.
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