Collector's Sale!

My DH and I went to the iris and daylily bareroot plant sale today.  The prices are - OMG - so incredibly low and the flowers for sale are - OMG - so incredibly pretty.

I got that really pretty icy light blue iris (second one back).

This is where I buy my irises.  The collector's go out and spend mega dollars for the flowers when they first come out on the market.  The newer the flower, the higher the cost.

My DH picked out that yellow and purple one in the back.  You can see we are going to have to have 2 different beds to put them in.

The collector's fuss and pamper and grow these beauties until they are mature enough to start dividing - sometimes they wait up to 10 years before they divide.  Then they turn around and realize that there's no more room in their garden to plant the same flower (they are saving room for different ones), so they clean them and sell them - really cheap.

I also got that light blue with white falls in the middle there.

Of course, the collectors think of them as just another one of the same flower, but I think of them as a grand shopping extravaganza!

And they toss in some freebies as well.

Some folks don't buy bare root flowers.  They want to see them in bloom at the nursery and buy them then.  Then they take them home and plant them in their garden - and are usually disappointed that they don't bloom as well - or at all - the next year (or three).

This is because the root system isn't acclimated to the new garden.  It's not "established".

The plant from the nursery has been 110% cared for and tended to its' entire life.  It never had to search for nutrients 'in the wild'.  It was served breakfast in bed, so to speak, ever since it was a little cotyledon.  (Those are the first 2 leaves of a plant.)

When the pampered princess gets to their garden, it usually gets planted with (maybe) a handful of time release food, watered a couple of times, and then it's left on its' own.  Well, if it has a lot of foliage, leaves, flowers to gather food for - and if it doesn't have strong enough roots to go gathering that food, it's not going to do well in the garden.

That's why I buy bare root.  It gives the plant enough time to acclimate its' roots to my garden and to grow nice and strong - get established.  Then, when it's ready it will flower.

And if it doesn't...well, at least I didn't spend a couple of hundred bucks on a plant that won't grow for me.

You just have to love the collector's sale!