Sunday, May 18, 2008

Morning Drive to Stoney Creek, PA

Saturday morning we got up and got going, we were planning to make our way to Stoney Creek, PA which is just west of Harrisburg. We were going to Stoney Creek Iris Farm to get a few more plants to fill in our front garden. This new iris is Southwest Sandy Pink, one of the 6 that I adopted this day. It has been raining for days so it was nice to get out of the house under overcast skies but dry ones, at least for the time being.
This iris is called "Stepping Out" and it's a historic one dating from 1964. We had breakfast in York and then since it was on the way up to Stoney Creek, we stopped at the PA Fabric Warehouse in Lemoyne as I wanted to get some patterns for blouses and see what else was available in the closeout pile of patterns. I got a couple of more yards of my linen embroidered skirt fabric to make a jacket to wear with solid black pants or skirts, I know it's going to make me nuts to match the pattern but I think it will make a striking jacket.
This iris is called Tennessee Woman. When we arrived, we pulled into the Iris farm and were escorted by the owner (Katie) and her husband all around to all the beds of beautiful flowers. Katie kindly gave me some tips about growing them, and answered some questions I had, and we had a fantastic time talking and getting to know each other. We also met their turkeys, both the babies and teenagers, and Mark went into the greenhouse and found some heirloom tomato plants to bring home. Katie also gave me a Stevia plant which I can't wait to find out more about and see if I can get it growing. It's used as a natural sweetner.
This Iris is called Innocent Star. Bright and early Sunday morning I pulled up the blind in the bedroom to see if it was raining and beheld a squirrel digging up the Lupines in my garden! If he'd been messing with my Iris plants I probably would have been even madder at him! I yelled at him and he ran away, but I moved the Lupines to a more protected spot nonetheless. I decided to get the planting from Saturday purchases done while the rain held up, and did so while Mark mowed the lawn. We'd actually stopped at a garden center on the way to supper so I had lots of little plants to plant between the Iris and also some new Columbines and Crested Iris for the other side of the garden too.
This one is called Lunar Frost and it was blooming in the pot when we got there. I especially love Iris with Colors inside the flower that reveals itself when the flower opens. Since Mark and Jon cut down some tree branches, I have more room to plant, hopefully these all will get enough sun to bloom for me next spring. If it ever is sunny long enough I'll check to see if more branches need to be trimmed back.
This one is called Silhouette. While we were in Pennsylvania, we explored Harrisburg which is really improving and changing, it had been awhile since I'd been downtown and it's really getting nice, with all kinds of eating places, boutiques, and pubs...quite a far cry from when I used to get downtown layovers there when it was pretty depressed and there were a lot of empty storefronts. It is quite nice now.

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