Digging It

My DH & I went on a dig.  It's like animal rescue - only it's for plants instead of animals.  It took hours of really hard labor, but we saved some really beautiful and rare plants.

Once we dug up each plant, we labeled them and put their roots into plastic bags to keep the moisture in.  Then we put the plants in a shady area until we were ready to pack them in the pickup.  We laid them in the bed like shingles, slightly overlapping, and used the shovels and pitchforks to weight them down a little.  Then I drove very slowly on back roads all the way home.

These large hostas are going to be a fantastic addition to our gardens.  They really will brighten up a shady spot and their creamy white centers will shine in the moonlight.  They'll be perfect next to one of the paths in the shade gardens.

These cute little bi-annuals make a great groundcover.  They flower and then set seed.  You just have to cut off the seed heads and shake them over the beds to get new flowers two years later.  Of course we dug up some of the ground around the flowers as well, so it already has the seeds in it for next year's flowers.

This beautiful maroon speckled iris was just begging to come home with us.  We don't have a very large iris collection here at our bucolic manor since we've really focused on getting our daylily beds in, but I really do love the iris.

There was an historic building that I used to pass on my way to the office everyday when I lived in the city.  Each Spring there was a 12-foot deep border that went all the way around this huge building of lavender irises that faded to white at the top.  It was a stunning display that I looked forward to every year.  I always felt that summer was just moments away when I saw those flowers in bloom.

Of course, things change and all of those irises are gone now - replaced by grass.  And I don't pass that building on my way to work anymore.  But everytime I see an iris, I have that same feeling that I had back when I was starting out at my first job in Manhattan and summer was just around the corner.

Oh - and those hostas that are right next to the iris?  Those are documented 1798 August Lilies - one of the older hosta names.  It was very wonderful to be able to save them from the lawn mower.

By the time we got home and offloaded all of the plants it was pretty late.  This coming week my DH will prepared all of the beds for their new residents.  And better than that, the hostess of the dig has invited us back to dig again before she moves.

Should be just enough time for my back to heal.