I’ve been checking my stats regularly and I’ve noticed that people are getting some search results for my site.

I thought I’d take a minute and try to answer some of the questions that I’ve seen in your recent searches:

Iris dover beach

The Iris Dover beach is a German Iris.

It blooms for me in my US Zone 5b, or Canadian zone 6b garden in mid to late June. It has the most beautiful light blue blooms that I’ve ever seen. German Iris’ like to be planted shallowly. They will not bloom if planted too deeply, just the same as Peonies. Once the blooms fade away cut off the stems so the plants can put their energy into building up strength for next years blooms. Divide the plant in early spring.

Daylily Sammy Russel

I actually have a lovely photo of this daylily on my other site Tricia’s Musings. The daylily Sammy Russel was hybridized in 1951 by Sammy Russell. It grows to a height of 24″ to 36″ and it is hard from US zone 3a to Zone 9b. It thrives in Full sun to partial shade. It’s blooms are 3″ to 4.5″ in diameter, and for me it’s a lovely shade of rich maroon. Divide the root ball in early spring to propagate.

Rose of Sharon tree

I’ve written about the Rose of Sharon tree in the past. A full write up on the care and blooming habits can be found in the link I’ve listed above. It’s September now and my Rose of Sharon began blooming near the middle of July and it’s still blooming. I think this was it’s longest bloom period ever.

Hosta propagation from leaves

In my brief search I couldn’t find any information about this topic. I suppose one could clip off a leaf or two and put it in some water (perhaps water amended with a rooting hormone) or in some damp growing medium and wait for roots to grow. Would the new plant be true to the hybrid that it likely came from? Perhaps, perhaps not. It’s said that Hosta’s grown from seed often are not the same as the parent plant. This is probably due to hybridization.

I can tell you that the easiest way to propagate hosta is by division. They can be divided in the early spring just after they have started sprouting shoots, or in the late summer to fall. Dig up the plant and simply take a sharp shovel or knife and split the clump in half. It’s that easy.

Propagating tropicanna plants

I’m assuming that the person searching for this term was wanting to find out how to propagate a Tropicana Canna. Like all Cannas the Tropicana develops several rhizomes below the soil surface. These rhizomes are what each new plant and leaf stalk grows out of. For gardeners in zones lower than 7 we must bring our canna plants inside for the winter as they are only hardy in zones 8 to 11 (some say zone 7 but to be safe I’ll keep it at zone 8 ).

I store my canna rhizomes in a cool spot in the basement. I keep the rhizomes in a mixture of vermeculite. Some people store them in saw dust. The best time to divide your cannas for propagation is shortly after you dig them up to bring the rhizomes inside for winter storage. Simply break the clumps apart. If you are lucky enough to live in a warm zone and you don’t have to dig up your cannas in the cooler months you can dig up your plants and divide the roots and rhizomes and then replant. The best months for those in warmer climates to do this would be near the end of the cool season.

Light requirements of raspberry bush

I’ve wrote about the care and growing of Raspberry bushes back in July. Raspberry bushes need full sun. It’s said that they can do well in partial shade (bright shade I’m assuming) but full sun is best.

Stay tuned for more garden tips derived from peoples search terms.