Spread the beauty by digging, separating irises for more flower power

Iris expert Roxie Nall will give hands-on demonstrations on how to multiply the beauty of irises in your garden Aug. 12 and 19 at Russian River Rose Co.

She will demonstrate how to dig up clumps of irises, groom them and separate out the new rhizomes to replant elsewhere. She’ll also show attendees how to replant old rhizomes to rebloom next year.

The demonstrations are at 10 a.m. each day, and tickets are $10 per person. Check in is at 9:45 a.m.

Pre-registration is required at russian-river-rose.com (click on garden events) or by calling 707-433-7455. The nursery is at 1685 Magnolia Drive.

There is more for the gardener’s eye at the Sonoma County Fair than the beautiful show gardens in the Hall of Flowers.

Outside the hall is a display garden created by the Sonoma County Master Gardeners that shows what an environmentally friendly garden can look like.

The specially trained team of volunteer horticulturists have teamed up with the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership to create a demonstration garden in the patio outside the hall. They call it the Pathway to Sustainability. The exhibit compares an unsustainable landscape composed of a thirsty lawn, closely packed and overpruned shrubs and annual flowers that need a lot of water to one made up of California-native and Mediterranean plants that thrive with little additional irrigation through the dry summer months. QR codes are posted in the garden that link to the Partnership’s website and more information on sustainable gardening practices.

Here are a few takeaways:

The Depot Park Museum in Sonoma has a new exhibit on the “Art and Architecture of the California Missions,” the style that inspired the Mission Revival architecture popular in the early part of the 20th century.

The story of this style is told through nine large oil paintings of California missions by the late-19th-century painter Mattie Fountai, displayed side by side with drypoint etchings made by printmaker Gertrude Stone Brooks between 1937 and 1942.

Each artist has depicted the mission as it appeared to them in their time and from their personal perspective, allowing the viewer to see the buildings in different ways.

Along with the art are four mission models from the collection of the Cline Family Cellars.

The mission style, inspired by California’s Spanish missions built a century earlier, showed up in residential, commercial and public buildings, many still standing today, a testament to the movement’s powerful influence on American culture.

On display for the first time are three retablos (religious tintypes) dating back to the mission period in California.

The museum, in Depot Park at 279 First St. W., is open 1-4 p.m. Thursday to Sunday.

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Features, The Press Democrat

Like most everyone, I love a good feature story that takes me somewhere I’ve never been or tells me something I don’t know. Where can I take you? Who in Sonoma County would you like to know better? I cover the people, places and ideas that make up Sonoma County, with general features, people profiles and home and garden, interior design and architecture stories. Hit me up with your tips, ideas and burning questions.