u/UnderwaterKahn

I may have one more super late bloomer (fingers crossed), but I only have a few final flowers left for spring 2026. Most of my plants come from iris club sales and trades. Mid-America and Suttons are our primary vendors. I usually pick up one or two clearance plants every year from a local nursery who largely sources from Schreiner’s. I had about a 75-80% bloom rate this year. That’s the highest I’ve had since starting my collection in 2021.

Cultivars shown: 1) Gala Event, 2) Pickathon, 3) Dusky Challenger, 4) Deceptive Heart, 5) High Chaparral, 6) Power Ballad, 7) Mixes Well (variegated foliage not shown), 8) Alcazar, 9) Unimaginable.

1. Thornbird (TB), 2) Redneck Girl (TB), 3) Neapolitan Delight (TB), 4) Purple and White noid (TB), 5) Grand Canyon Sunset (TB), 6) Ramses (TB), 7) Gallant Theme (TB), 8) Victoria Falls (TB), 9) Bad Habits (TB)

April was another full month for me. I’m waiting for the month when I slow down.

My favorites of the month were Strange Sally Diamond, Dear Monica Lewinsky, and Lakewood. Strange Sally Diamond was just a good, engaging book. Someone tried to sell it to me as a thriller and I don’t think that’s where it fits. But it’s definitely a book I will recommend a lot. It carries good tension throughout. Lakewood has been on my TBR for awhile. It doesn’t end as strongly as I would have liked, but it’s a really creative and creepy book. Dear Monica Lewinsky is fast and really creative. It starts a little slow, but does an excellent job of showing how society has changed in the last 25-30 years regarding gender issues.

I also really enjoyed Yesteryear. It doesn’t need any hype since it’s already gotten so much. It’s fast, easy to read, with some original ideas. I think most people will have some sense of what’s happening and the big reveal isn’t such a reveal. But it doesn’t ruin the book. It’s a good summer vacation read. I read it in 2 days and for me that’s fast.

I was a big fan of We Used to Live Here so I was really excited for The Caretaker. I think I was hoping for more tie in between the two stories. I found the Caretaker lacked the tension of We Used to Live Here and I found it pretty slow in some places.

Middlesex was one of my rereads for the month. I remember reading it around the time it won the Pulitzer and thinking it was one of my favorite books of the year. Almost 25 years later it’s really problematic. It wasn’t intentional that I read this book in the same month as Dear Monica Lewinsky, but there were alot of parallels for me in terms of how we think about gender and sexuality now as opposed to how we talked about similar issues in the 90s-00s.

Spring came early this year. I’m in zone 6a/6b

1. Ballyhoo (TB), 2) Sorbonne (TB), 3) Come Away with Me (TB), 4) Easter Candy (TB), 5) White noid (TB), 6) Gilded Girl (TB), 7) Purple noid (TB), 8) Flip a Coin (TB) (r) and Jealous Rage (TB) (l). These two are sister plants. Blooms look different, but plant growth looks identical. 9) Dijonaise (IB), 10) Medal of Honor (TB), 11) On Edge (TB)