How to grow great Iris

 Ric Silver, from Groton, Ct.,  grows beautiful Jackson & Perkins Iris.
We asked him to share some tips on growing beautiful iris.
Many thanks Ric.

I guess the main thing is to soak the corms in water for about 1/2 an hour before planting - then place them just slightly under the soil - the tuber should protrude from the soil at the plant end - and can even be slightly exposed the full length of the tuber.

Full sun is a must as they will die in the shade - I do have some that are in a spot that is shaded in the afternoon and they bloom later than the others and also the blooms are smaller - they like good brown dirt - but will grow in rocky soil as well - just so it's not gravel or sand. I fertilize once a year with MiracleGro Shake and Feed. If your Iris have stopped blooming - it's probably because they are crowding themselves out - every few years you need to tear up the whole lot - and start over - making sure to separate them well. clip the leaves in an inverted "V" about 2 inches above the corm. Using a 3 prong spade, lift from below and break into sections - even the corms with no greenery will come back if not rotted. I usually do this every 4 to 5 years . Till the soil to clean out the weeds and broken roots and space the corms about 8 to 10 inches or more apart. -Ric Silver-

Plant Give-Away video

Hosta Video

Hosta is almost the perfect plant for gardens in our area.
This video will give you the basic information on planting and caring for your hosta

New London Parks History

REMEMBER -  click on any image to see it in full size.

A little book of park plans for New London, prepared for the city in 1918.
 They had some big dreams back then. An interesting look at our past.
General Plan of a Park and Playground System for New London, Conn.

Perennials Not To Feed

Beautification Committee member, Diane Smith recommended this article from
Horticulture web site

Certain perennials do not benefit from additional fertilizer. Before you spring-feed your garden, review this list of perennials not to feed.

Most perennials don’t need a lot of feeding, particularly if the soil is healthy and rich and was prepared well at planting time. A spring top-dressing of compost may do the trick. In areas with poor soil, a once-annual application of granular fertilizer in spring will suffice for most perennials. Exceptions include “heavy feeders” such as mums, lupines, lilies, delphiniums, astilbe and border phlox.
Perennials that do best with no supplement fertilizer include butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), false indigo (Baptisia australis), asters, pinks (Dianthus spp.), rock roses (Helianthemum spp.), sea holly (Eryngium spp.), bee balm (Monarda didyma), speedwell (Veronica spp.), coneflowers (Echinacea spp. and Rudbeckia spp.) and all ornamental grasses.

Two New Projects

The New London Beautification Committee is very excited to announce two new initiatives this season in an effort to further encourage gardening in New London.  The first initiative is a Plant Give-Away that will be held on Sunday, May 20 from 11:00-2:00 at Ocean Beach Park.  Plants from Beautification sites around town as well as members’ own gardens will be available on a limited first come, first served basis until the supply runs out.  The Give Away will be a rain or shine event, and Beautification members will be available for advice regarding care of the plants.

The second initiative to encourage gardening in New London came about because Beautification was aware that its annual awards presented to local businesses didn’t include all the beautification efforts going on throughout the city.   A “Thank You” campaign has been created to recognize both homeowners and businesses trying to improve New London’s appearance.  Noteworthy gardening efforts that come to Beautification’s attention will receive postcards in the mail thanking the residents or business owners for doing their part to beautify New London.   If you would like to draw attention to a beautifully executed planter by a business’s entrance or to a delightfully landscaped yard, please contact Beautification through its website: nlbeautification.org or contact Tita Williams at 860-443-9694.

An Old Video for a New Year

This video was made about four years ago. It was one of the first videos that I made for the Beautification Committee. Since then, You Tube and my ability to make videos has improved a great deal, but it is this video that has remained the most popular of all our many videos posted on our You Tube page. The video was picked up by  an online magazine , and has over 40,000 views, and pages of comments. It has brought a lot of traffic to our sites from around the world, and added many new subscribers to our video pages.
I am posting it again, for those of you that might have missed it the first time around, it has not been seen on this site for about four years.
I hope you enjoy this look back at our old movies.

A Gardener's Year, Four Seasons with the Beautification Committee

A video of Beautification Committee member's favorite photos of their home and public gardens.
All the photos were taken in New London.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

The members of the Beautification Committee have been busy the last few days, cutting and preparing the plant material, to fill the planters at City Hall. It is the last big project of the year, and the last time the members will get together before the holidays.
Go to our  photo album   to see more of our preparations, and more photos of the finished containers.

The Bump Out in Bloom

Beautification Committee member, Diane Smith, took these great photos of the Bently Bump Out, this past week.
Diane planned and planted much of this garden. She did replace the beach roses with "Knock Out Roses" for a season of continuous bloom This garden requires little care and little watering.
See the post below for the past history of the Bump Out. It is fun to see how a garden was started and how much it has filled in in the past three years.

WHAT IS A BUMP OUT?

In every city and town, you can drive around and find strange little forgotten spaces that have become eye-sores. We hardly notice them as we pass by, sometimes they are so overgrown that we have forgotten what they are or why they were made. Once you start to notice these spaces, they are hard to ignore.

Thus we arrive at what the Beautification Committee calls The Bently Bump Out [for lack of knowing what else to call such a weird little construction]. We were all in agreement that it was a mess, and this week we have finished redoing the whole thing. See above video.
A special thanks to Jim and Lisa Pettey for all your work on this project, truly heroic.

Is there a space that you have noticed, around the city, that you think needs attention? Perhaps you are just wondering how it got to be there. Take a few photos and email them to us [upper left hand column], or leave a message below in comments. Maybe we can help.

Seven Million Bulbs - A Video

 Tita Williams, co- president and member of the Beautification Committee made this video after returning from Holland just last week. It is a wonderful treat to see a display of bulbs like this, and to see Tita's skill as a photographer. This video is a great way to see how different bulbs can be planted together, and how color layouts can work. Thanks Tita.

Color in the garden - Painting tips

Paint some blue skies, paint some faded clay pots, paint a worn out fence, nothing gives you more value for the money then a can of paint.

A video from D.U.G.

  I am the member of the New London Beautification Committee who runs this blog, but I also have my own garden blog called  Diary of an Urban Gardener, where I post videos about my own gardens and garden projects.
At our most recent Beautification Committee meeting, the members had a long discussion on how to reach out to the public and get people involved in gardening both public and private. Members came up with some great ideas, which we plan to implement in the next year.
One idea that was easy to do right away, was to post more how- to projects on our committee blog.
The above video is the first video I made for D.U.G. and talks about planning your future garden, mostly on your computer. This is a great time of the year to dream about a new garden, or a new project for an existing garden, and when spring arrives, you will be ready to hit the ground running, so to speak.
In this video I do mention using a photo shop program, which are expensive to buy, but did you know that you can download a free program that does much of the same work. It is called Gimp, click here to go to the download page  
 I use this program all the time and find it is more intuitive and straight forward then programs that cost a great deal of money. So, get going, you have no excuses, you don't even have to go out in the snow. The Internet will provide you with the answers to any garden question you have, or email us, or leave a comment and we will answer your questions.

Three Years at Columbus Circle

There has been many changes made to this major traffic intersection in New London.
This video shows a time line for the past three years of improvements.

Fall Color at New London Senior Center

 Beautification Committee member, Diane Smith took some photos of her garden at the New London Senior Center, this week.
This garden was completely replanted last season when a maple tree that was at the center of the garden died and had to be removed.
The Committee bought a new hawthorn tree, that was planted last fall. The new tree was planted in the back of the garden, so the roots would have plenty of room to grow.The garden has filled in nicely in just one growing season.
Scroll down to the next post and watch a video about the work that was done last fall.

A Senior Center video

This is a quick video showing the improvements made at the Senior Center in the past year, by the Beautification Committee and by the New London Public Works Department. A nice job by all involved

Fall at the Old Town Mill

New Londoners sometimes forget about this wonderful place. While the mill itself is not always open, the grounds are. Children love this place and often ask to return. If you are looking for something to do with the family on the weekend, pack some juice boxes and head over to this historical site.  It is free. Your children will thank you and you will enjoy the peace and beauty of the place.

Time to go to the beach

Ocean Beach Park is one great reason to live in New London, so get your sunscreen out, grab a towel, and head for the beach, that many of us grew up on. Feel like a child again, meet your friends, eat ice cream and be happy!!!

Two Years at City Hall, a video

A short video showing the installation of the new sidewalks and garden, in the back of City Hall, last summer.