New Blooms and a New Path

My favorite iris opened this morning...




















and remember that Baptisia that I moved last year, in willful violation of all the Garden Rules???
It bloomed yesterday.



I picked up some more stepping stones and made a path through the butterfly garden. I need to be careful, though, about publicizing all these projects. Barbara at Wild Birds Unlimited is beginning to wonder how I can accomplish so much in my garden and so little at work. My wife has expressed similar amazement.

Breaking Rules

The problem with gardening books is that they tell me things I don't want to know. Things like "False Indigo (baptisia australis) doesn't like to be moved." Well, the problem is that I planted some last year, and as often happens, I don't like the location now.

I looked at some other books. Maybe this was just one writer's opinion. Nope.

"Baptisia puts down a long tap root and should not be moved."

"Baptisia is notoriously sensitive to being moved."

Ok. define "should" and "notoriously sensitive." Is it going to die if I move it, or what? I need to know the consequences to make an informed decision.

Maybe all these writers just have finicky plants. Maybe my baptisia are adventurous and would actually like a change of scenery.

We'll see. I gave the matter serious consideration for about 30 seconds, then dug them up and moved them to their new home. Call me a rebel.

As I was leafing through the gardening books looking for a baptisia loophole, I came upon this gem concerning irises:

"Late autumn planting is not advisable because the plants won't have a chance to send down anchor roots." Great. Irises were the next thing I wanted to move. (I moved some last January and they did fine, so I went ahead with these.)

Check back in the spring and I'll let you know what happened.