Beekeeping. Progress notes.

Here we are.  Bees are installed in their hive.  It wasn't difficult.  Afterwards, I sat in a chair an watched them buzzing around for 30 minutes.  I still tire easily.

Hard to see them.  By far the majority are inside the hive.  I sat the box under the hive so remaining bees could find their way to it.  After some exploring, they quickly learned where is the entrance.

The bee box contains about 3 pounds of bees.  That's thousands of them.  Plus the queen.  I was diligent about installing the queen per instructions.

Walking around the place.

Red leaf ornamental plum. I thought I posted on this, when planted - August? - but could not find the post. I think this is "Crimson Point", a columnar plum. The flowers are as nice without petals, as with petals.Tamara rose. Cutting-grown, moved last summer. I thought it died. Growing nicely. Tamara is very thorny. Maybe that will deter deer.Iris pallida albo variegata. Rescued from the Vancouver place, was overgrown there. Coming back nicely. Beautiful foliage.Pieris, rescued from the Vancouver place last fall. It was declining badly. The red new growth is as nice as any flower. Recovering nicely.Pollinizer graft on Asian pear tree. Looks viable and growing. No way to know until it grows actively. Sometimes there can be enough moisture to support a small amount of growth even if a graft hasn't taken.Rhubarb at the Battleground place.Laburnum flower buds. This is going to be impressive.

First batch of Chinese Chives for 2013

Well on their way to becoming the best dumplings in the world. These are the first Chinese chives from the Battleground raised beds. They grew stout, fast, early, and have a strong aroma.

Ning planting 2 apricot trees

Neighbor had 2 seedling apricot trees they've been growing for a number of years. They wanted to give them away, so here we are! Nice neighbors! There is some risk - first, I've never been able to get an apricot tree to survive here. Second, seed-grown, no idea what the apricots will be like. Finally, they might need a pollinator. Still for #2, my neighbor has had these outside for maybe 6 years, in containers. I suspect they will be OK. Maybe there is a rootstock issue with the trees that have died? These are seed grown, so on their own roots. As for pollinator, since these are seed-grown, each should be genetically a little different from the other, so they should be compatible. As for the unknowns, we have room for them, and there isn't much risk, so here they are. This little orchard now has the 2 apricot trees, 2 pear trees, and an American linden (nectar source). Also planned are the 2 dwarf apples I bench-grafted at the Home Orchard Society grafting class, starting to grow. I'll keep then in containers for a little longer before planting in ground.

Home Orchard in Bloom

Almaden Duke Cherry.  Moved from the house in Vancouver mid summer.  At that time, it wilted a bit.  This tree is roughly 4 years old.  The blossoms indicate a nice bowl of cherries this year.  I'm happy it not only survived, but is thriving.

Euro plum. This tree came with the place. Deer ate virtually all of the leaves. A few new branches grew but it was shot for the summer. That it survived at all is a surprise. The new branch will supply some plums this year. The older branch, which was denuded, I will be happy if it just grows. Looks like it will. We will see if the fencing keeps out the deer.


Vandalay Cherry. This was planted bare root last month. I don't expect any cherries at all this year. The blossom suggest a few could happen. Just a taste.  

Shan Zha.  English name is Chinese Haw, Red Sun.  Beautiful new leaves.  Planted bare root last fall.  No blossoms, that's OK.  Too small for fruit this year.  Needs to grow and settle in.  The new leaves are a special effect.  Very nice.

Toka plum. Caged to protect from deer. Bought as a container tree at Home Depot last summer. Part of my attempt to get things started for the home orchard as quickly as possible, and start tasting fruit from my orchard as quickly as possible. If we get plums the first year after planting, that is awesome. Even a few.

Satsuma plum. Caged for protection from deer. In bloom. This was purchased last summer from Home Depot. Nice to see it blooming. Plums the first year after planting - nice. If they happen.

I can't get the text to align with photos, since the program updated.  Maybe I will figure it out.  If not, these will have to do.

Heritage Irises, continued

The bearded iris order did arrive, as I was typing the previous post.

The rhizomes were smaller than previous orders from other sources.

My thinking is these are mostly, or all, diploid. Most modern irises are tetraploid and would have larger rhizomes. In addition, West Coast irises are expected to be larger due to growing season.  I think.  These were from Michigan, and the shorter season may lead to smaller rhizomes.

The important thing for me is they grow and bloom.

Ning planted them for me. A very simple task to plant these small rhizomes. Digging in the raised bed, there was a sizable population of earthworms. They would start coming out of the ground a foot away from each hole.  Add some well aged compost mulch around each.  Ready to settle in.

According to Old House Gardens, these should bloom this year.  Considering the size and need to settle in, if these do bloom this year, that suggests the others,, which are already much bigger, should do the  same.  I would like that.

Those rhizomes traveled a long way.

Not much I can do at the moment. Brief puttering and thinking about stuff. Quite some time back I ordered some heritage iris rhizomes.

By heritage, I indicate varieties that are genetic clones, through generations, from the mid 20th century, to the 19th century, and in some cases the 16th century. Propagated in endless succession by gardeners, and sometimes by nurseries, and sometimes by neglect, for generations and centuries. I ordered these rhizomes back in August of last year.  Ordering so far ahead is a leap of faith - a lot can happen in 8 months, and has.

 The raised bed is set up for them, and already has other irises, already well amended with a mixture of leaf compost and local soil (about 3 parts soil to 1 part compost), plus wood ashes, plus near the surface level, more kitchen compost and a generous dusting of ground eggshell for calcium. The irises already in the bed are growing vigorously, with stout green leaves, longer each time I look.

The rhizomes are shipping here,, should arrive today. It's interesting to me - and probably only to me - to look at the shipping record online. These rhizomes, having traveled through decades and centuries, and some at least across one ocean, and back and forth across a continent, are traveling again.  More when they arrive.

Location	Date	Local Time	Activity
Vancouver, WA, United States	04/05/2013	7:27 A.M.	Out For Delivery
	04/05/2013	7:01 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Portland, OR, United States	04/05/2013	6:35 A.M.	Departure Scan
Portland, OR, United States	04/04/2013	11:32 P.M.	Arrival Scan
Hermiston, OR, United States	04/04/2013	7:54 P.M.	Departure Scan
	04/04/2013	5:38 P.M.	Arrival Scan
Spokane, WA, United States	04/04/2013	2:31 P.M.	Departure Scan
	04/04/2013	11:55 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Hodgkins, IL, United States	04/02/2013	10:37 A.M.	Departure Scan
	04/02/2013	6:28 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Oshtemo, MI, United States	04/02/2013	4:18 A.M.	Departure Scan
	04/02/2013	4:07 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Wyoming, MI, United States	04/02/2013	3:08 A.M.	Departure Scan
	04/02/2013	12:22 A.M.	Arrival Scan
Ypsilanti, MI, United States	04/01/2013	9:44 P.M.	Departure Scan
	04/01/2013	6:53 P.M.	Origin Scan
United States	04/01/2013	4:22 P.M.	Order Processed: Ready for UPS

from Renaissance herbals.



from http://irapl.altervista.org/nit/viewpics.php?title=Iris+florentina

(from the linked website:  Iris florentina
Picture modified from Gilg, Ernst; Schumann, Karl - Das Pflanzenreich Hausschatz des Wissens (1900) - Permission granted to use under GFDL by Kurt Stueber. Source: www.biolib.de - Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this image under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.
More to follow.

What's Blooming?

Sweet Cherry.

Iris bucharica.

Muscari. These multiply rapidly with no assistance from me.

Genetic dwarf peaches..

Laburnum Cutting

Laburnum grown from cutting the same way as figs. Looking pretty good. I potted them a few weeks ago. I'm happy to have Spring here now, and the cuttings growing. I'm recuperating and can't do much for a month or two. Fortunately, watering cuttings and minor tasks are do-able and cheer me up.

Back Yard

By necessity the yard is in a state of benign neglect now. Fortunately I did a lot of pruning and clean up in previous weeks. Nice the fruit trees and bulbs are blooming.An antique narcissus variety. The bunches each started with 1 to 3 bulbs. Now I need to find the name again. They could stand to be dug up and divided this summer. Hard to see but there are also Juno Iris in the photo. The chive barrel is growing nicely. Maybe Ning will make chive dumplings in a week or two. Comfort food.