We went to a local farm and watched the farmer sheer the sheep and then card the wool and spin it...then we went back to school and dyed it using onions, wild geraniums for yellows, beets for dark pink red and blueberries for blue. It was a month long project and idk who enjoyed it more, the children or the teachers. One of our subs made a pair of mittens that the children drew straws for.
The Lions Club sponsors a plant exchange in my local community. People bring all sorts of perennials that they dig up in their yards and you can take whatever you want. I have gone for the last 4 years and I just love it. Last year I got bee balm in 2 colors.
This year I walked around all of the tables and for the first time I didn't see anything particularly interesting but then I saw it - Baptisia! I didn't even know what that was before I read about it here so I stood right in front of that pot and as soon as the signal was given I grabbed it. It is a purple color according to the tag. I also got some purple iris, 2 elephant ear bulbs and a few Peruvian lily bulbs so it turned out to be a good trip.
The Baptisia has flower stalks on it but I don't know if it will bloom after being transplanted. If it does, I'll take a pic.
Post by desertwoman on May 7, 2015 20:51:39 GMT -5
Maybe you should wait to transplant the baptisia until it has started to bloom. This way you get to see what the color is and it get's to at least go through part of what it has started. Then plop it in it's home.
Are the peruvian lilies "alstroemerias"? I love those flowers. And they last for 2-3 weeks a cut flower.
Northern New Mexico 7000' desert plateau Zone 7a (formerly Zone 5, then 6a, 6b) Posting since 2005
Maybe you should wait to transplant the baptisia until it has started to bloom.
It was wilting so it was not exactly established in it's pot. It looks like they just dug it out of their yard in the last couple of days because the roots were cut off. It had really BIG roots. I planted and watered it right away.
Update - the Baptisia is perking up so it may bloom after all. I hope so.
Secondly, I mistakenly said Peruvian lily and it should be Peruvian Daffodil. I have gotten these other years at the plant exchange and they are really pretty. They do not overwinter here and have to be dug up and brought inside like amaryllis bulbs.
I took 6 pots of excess sedum that I pulled out while weeding my flower beds last week. Yes, I hovered over that Baptisia, I really wanted it. There were two pots of it and they both got grabbed right away. I noticed that all of my sedum went to new homes too.
I usually also take rhubarb stalks and they always get grabbed but this year I didn't take any.
The Peruvian Daffodils are supposed to be fragrant but I never checked that when I had them before. I usually just marvel at how pretty they are. Some person brings a bunch of them every year. I only took 2 bulbs but there was a whole bag of them. I am kicking myself for not re-checking for left overs but I wanted to take the Baptisia to my truck before someone else grabbed it if I put it down.
Elephant ear bulb is dark brown. That is the only way I have ever seen them.