This Week's Podcast: Flowers of the Rainbow
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Our guest this week is down-to-earth-gardener Linda Sercus, executive director of the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Montclair, NJ. Every spring, around the time of Mother’s Day, thousands of people come to see thousands of varieties of bearded Iris, and they have since the garden’s founding in 1927. If you love color and flowers and live within a couple of hours of the gardens, you should add seeing this spectacle to your bucket list.
If you live in the immediate area, you might consider going annually – especially if you are interested in growing Iris. And I would not limit those visits to the hoped-for moment of peak bloom.
Between the earliest species iris from bulbs and latest remondant (re-blooming) bearded iris, there will be plants in flower from March to September. The Presby website even has an on-line iris cam, so you can see the progression of bloom for yourself.
But Linda tells us about more than the garden. For example: got borers? She treats them organically. Soil issues? Learn how they amend the soil at The Presby. Too many iris rhizomes? If you have ever grown bearded iris, you know that they multiply and have to be divided. The garden sells the extras with fund-raising rhizome sales.
Check out The Presby website to find out about special spring events like lectures, book signings and demonstrations. You might even consider becoming a volunteer.
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