A Third Generation Iris Grower
After you read this entry, you might decide that the title sounds more powerful than it is. We're not growing fields and acres of irises. Just a humble few that brighten my spirits every spring and give me fond memories of family. My grandmother Maurine Moore was many things to me, including my quilting teacher. But there are so many other things. Like growing flowers. The home that she lived in the majority of my childhood is the cutest 1 and a half story white cap cod looking house with a picket fence. It has a single car garage with a narrow drive up to it. Along the length of that driveway is about a 5-foot wide section that was always filled with flowers. Irises and phlox among them. I certainly have read plenty of gardening magazines over the years, but I can't say that the names of the flowers always stick with me. Rather, the colors and the variety, and the happiness that it seemed to cast on grandma's house. My mother Sheri McNutt has that same gardening ability. And, in 1989 my parents moved into Grandma's house and took over the flower bed. In the summer, mom's window boxes are draped with gorgous flowers in full bloom. (I'll take a picture next time I'm there.)
Back to the iris. If you grow them at all, you know that every so many years they need to be cleaned out and spread out! My grandmother brought iris to my mom's flower beds at our house in Northwood. (Someday I'll show you the award winning photo of an iris from that flower bed! It traveled the state of Iowa on a 4-H tour. Now it hangs in our master bath.) In our home in Melbourne, we transplanted them to my flower beds.
Now it is time to landscape our house in Union and the timing was perfect. Mom said it was time to thin them out in her flower beds. Last Tuesday, Earl May was suppose to start working on the edging, but rain stopped that. (I won't complain though, because at least we have a home to landscape, unlike our fellow Iowans in Parkersburg.) On Wednesday, my mom dug up several of the iris and filled the trunk of her car with roots and buds. In the rain on Thursday we took them out and put them in containers to await being added. This morning, the roots in the pots were blooming and I couldn't help but smile. I just love iris. They are my favorite flower.
This week I'm hoping the rain lets up enough that the pile of brick and mulch can be turned into something much more pleasing to the eye. Hopefully the garden space on each side of my sidewalk will bring happiness to our house.
Back to the iris. If you grow them at all, you know that every so many years they need to be cleaned out and spread out! My grandmother brought iris to my mom's flower beds at our house in Northwood. (Someday I'll show you the award winning photo of an iris from that flower bed! It traveled the state of Iowa on a 4-H tour. Now it hangs in our master bath.) In our home in Melbourne, we transplanted them to my flower beds.
Now it is time to landscape our house in Union and the timing was perfect. Mom said it was time to thin them out in her flower beds. Last Tuesday, Earl May was suppose to start working on the edging, but rain stopped that. (I won't complain though, because at least we have a home to landscape, unlike our fellow Iowans in Parkersburg.) On Wednesday, my mom dug up several of the iris and filled the trunk of her car with roots and buds. In the rain on Thursday we took them out and put them in containers to await being added. This morning, the roots in the pots were blooming and I couldn't help but smile. I just love iris. They are my favorite flower.
This week I'm hoping the rain lets up enough that the pile of brick and mulch can be turned into something much more pleasing to the eye. Hopefully the garden space on each side of my sidewalk will bring happiness to our house.
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