ALBIA — “I love flowers! I have a pretty good garden. The most important thing is just to keep it as clean as possible and don’t forget to mulch,” says Ruth Belzer of Albia.

She says, “I do set large stones in my garden for the butterflies. I like to see the butterflies. Stones hold warmth from the sun overnight. The butterflies need that warmth to get their wings going in the mornings. I also like to keep a dampened sandy spot. The butterflies will sort of snorkel up that moisture.”

She plants Monardo and Bee Balm for the butterflies. She adds that they, along with hummingbirds, like tubular flowers.

“I have in the past had very beautiful gardens, but we have only been here for about five years,” Belzer says.

She lived in Kansas for about 11 years where she said gardening was much more difficult. In Iowa she says, “The soil here is so fertile and nice. In Kansas, it was really a job.”

While in Kansas, Belzer and her sister were featured in the Lawrence Journal World newspaper for their beautiful flower garden.

Belzer grew up in the Lovilia area and lived in Fremont and Ottumwa for a while before going to Kansas. She returned to Iowa five years ago, settling in Albia.

The best flower to grow, she says, is the small golden Stella de Oro’ Daylily.  She says, “They are easy to grow and they multiply fast. They are a good beginning flower.”

Over the past few years, she has been able to get about 30 starts from the first little clump she started with.

“I have started rose bushes,” she says. “A lovely one to start is the knockout roses. It is a little shrub; the roses, they just bloom constantly.”

Her favorite flower, though, is the iris. “My mother thought so much of them.

“I talk to my flowers,” she says. “I do like to keep the dead flowers picked off, it makes them bloom better.”

One of the best fertilizers Belzer recommends is bone meal. She just digs down in the dirt a bit and adds some bone meal, making sure it doesn’t touch the roots of the plant.

“I do keep track of the stuff I buy in my flower book,” she says. “I have recorded everything I purchased and planted from 2004 to 2007, and I have a wish list for 2008.”

Belzer has a scrap book filled with pictures of her garden, including all the little details regarding what goes into it. She saves all the little packets or plant picks that contain the directions for her plants to refer back to at a later date if necessary. She purchases a good stock of perennials from a well known company that guarantees plants.