Thanks to Mike in Oly for today’s spirit-lifters:
I collect historic irises – that is, iris varieties more than 30 years old, altho the bulk of my collection is over 60 years old. I’ve been collecting for almost 25 years and currently have 150 varieties, down from a peak of about 700 at a previous garden with more room.
I am particularly fond of varieties created by Dr. Rudolph Kleinsorge of Silverton, Oregon, who introduced irises from 1929 to 1961. I have the largest collection of his irises anywhere – 46 varieties. There are 8 more of his out there I need to add to my collection to be as complete as it can be.
I love photographing them just as much as collecting and growing them. I really enjoy watching the light play thru the blooms over the day.
Irises are one of the few species of flowers where brown is one of the options and I am very fond of brown irises. Here are some shots from last spring.
Close up of a crab spider with a bee she caught for lunch. They love to hide in the flowers and wait for bees. I have seen them in a variety of pastel tones often matching the blooms they are hiding in. They are fascinating creatures.
***********
One of my goals for next spring is to finally set up a ‘proper’ iris bed. Before the ground froze, I managed to dig up (most of) an overcrowded plot of unconquerable species iris; I planted out a bunch of named species from last summer’s Iris Society tent sale, but I’m not sure they had enough time to establish themselves. So, of course, I’ve got some catalogs marked up already. Hope springs eternal, but at least I know that irises are generally tough, forgiving plants…
What’s going on in your garden (plans), this week?
Jeffery
I am slowly doing the fall clean up. I may be done by spring if it isn’t too wet a winter.
I bought five different annual poppy mixes that were sown directly in the ground in October. They are up. Will move them around in March or April to fill the yard with poppies this year. They only flower until the hot weather shows up.
WereBear
I adore irises! They are flamboyant and enthusiastic, just like me :)
Had an amazing cat consultation this week. A devoted student of the Way, she and I wrestled with the fact that she was, and had been, doing everything right for this senior, blind, rescue cat. He’d already confounded the vet with his health stabilizing, and she’d done wonderful things to “anchor” him in his new home.
Now, a year and a half later, he’s wailing until someone get up, and stays up, with him.
We gamed out some higher level strategies, and on the subject of stress relief, I said, “Does he like music?” Sir Tristan has his own Pandora channel. I thumb up any song he likes, and it all started with Sade. I pointed out it took a while for Tristan to find his favorite music, and maybe her cat could use his favorite genre, softly playing during the night so he had some input through his ears.
Jokingly, I said, “Maybe he loves heavy metal and we just don’t know it.”
Got an email a couple of nights ago: success! Everyone slept through the night, because she worked her way through Spotify until she found a channel that riveted him.
Yup. Turns out, he is a headbanger.
mrmoshpotato
Your Sunday morning need some Mahna Mahna? Here you go.
mrmoshpotato
@WereBear: LOL Did she list any of the headbanging kitty’s favorites?
WereBear
@mrmoshpotato: No, she might still be working through that. Personally, I’m leaning Ronnie James Dio. He’s got such a great voice :)
Quinerly
WOW
??????
satby
Mike in Oly, your irises are fantastic! I became an iris convert in MI and had planted several varieties, only to lose a lot when I tried to move them with me to my new place. It looks like a few I thought lost to the severe overgrowth in my garden were recovering so I’m hoping this spring is a new beginning for my iris bed. I just wish the rhizomes weren’t so pricey. Browns, coppers, and oranges are my favorites too.
satby
@WereBear: I leave the radio tuned to the local classical station for all the gang when I leave the house because it’s usually on when I’m here. Fortunately, none of them have expressed a preference for anything else.
Steeplejack (phone)
I’ve been reading in bed on the phone for a while. The housecat got me up about an hour and a half ago for her middle-of-the-night feeding. Not too bad, since I went to bed uncharacteristically early, a little after 11:00.
Now I’m in that limbo between “try to go back to sleep” and “just get up and make coffee.” Probably the latter, since as I inevitably run across politics and Trump in my reading I get more agitated and less sleepy. Grr.
I’m going to drive out to the Cox store in Fairfax today and get a new cable modem. I spent too much time yesterday troubleshooting the current one, which has resisted all efforts to revive it, and finally I decided, what the hell, it’s seven years old, I’m due for a new one anyway. Bonus: there’s a good Mexican restaurant nearby for lunch.
I’ll also check into replacing my cable box, which I think is also about seven years old. I’d like to get one of the new Contour boxes with a much bigger DVR drive, but I don’t want to pay more for the extravagant, multi-room Contour “experience” touted in the ads. All I need is one box with a bigger drive and (hopefully) an updated user interface. I look forward to discussing my needs with the no doubt competent and helpful staff at the store.
Okay, coffee time. Maybe I’ll get a chance to wake up the housecat. She’s no doubt sleeping on the laptop keyboard and doing a little butt-typing.
mrmoshpotato
@WereBear: Yes he did.
NotMax
Sitting here sipping a glass of wine while snacking on some grapes.
Kind of redundant, huh?
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Non-alcoholic wine and alcohol-infused grapes?
satby
@NotMax: throw in some cheese and you have a very French snack.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: Catapult some farm animals at the English, and you practically are French.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato: Isn’t that the last step required to consummate Brexit?
satby
So I was put in a posting timeout by FB for “violating community standards” by resharing a post that has been going around already. I’ve been nailed for the same offense for other shares of news articles even without adding my own snotty comments, so I assume one of the right wing trolls who follows me is flagging my posts as offensive. Which I find oddly satisfying TBH. Means it’s leaving a mark.
anastasiobeaverhausen
I need help! My grandfather hybridized irises in Tennessee in the 30’s. The American Iris Society lists 9 hybrids, but I can’t find a picture, or a source for a single one. Any tips on how to track down any of these obscure plants? Thanks!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
?BillinGlendaleCA
They had a thing in town for the Armenian community to thank our Congresscritters for helping to push the bill to recognize the Armenian genocide. Being that one of our local Reps is named Schiff, some MAGA’s showed up(it wasn’t clear if they were Armenian) to scream at Rep. Schiff about impeachment. They were told by the organizers that this was not the forum for that.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: No. The Brits will throw all of their foodstuffs and livestock at the French. “Merci, you stupid, English, Brexit-loving pigdogs!” Because why not make the coming self-inflicted shitshow worse?
Raven
@mrmoshpotato: I fart in your general direction!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
mrmoshpotato
@Raven: Raven, how dare you? And on a Sunday morning! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
JPL
@satby: Success, I guess. How long is your time-out?
mrmoshpotato
@satby: 1. What standards does the Book of Faces have these days (aside from know the exchange rate for rubles)?
2. What did you post that upset a bunch of “alpha-male” Nazi Trump trash?
oldster
Notice that the Iris wizard comes from Silverton, OR.
BJ just featured some pictures of Silver Falls in Silverton the other week, and I commented on the annual Strawberry Festival.
Truly that part of the Pacific Northwest is an Eden for growers and gardeners.
Wish I could move back.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. How beautiful,
Cheryl Rofer
Beautiful iris. I love them too. One of my projects for 2020 is to dig up my main iris bed and redo it. I haven’t decided whether to renew what’s there or to get some new ones.
Update on Merlin from TomatoQueen on last night’s Merlin thread.
satby
@JPL: : my timeout ends today. There’s no pattern to what they’ve claimed has been a violation other than it’s probably upsetting to Trumpistas. It’s happened a lot lately and it’s mostly on stuff I shared from other posters, so it’s someone complaining specifically about my posts and FB automatically flagging them.
Sorry for the delay, I dozed off for an hour ?
satby
@satby: and that reply was supposed to be to
@mrmoshpotato:
mrmoshpotato
@satby: I’m sure JPL is interested too. ?
Thanks.
And no problem on the delay. I usually search for replies when picking up on a thread. Go back to sleep; it’s Sunday.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: I had a couple of posts flagged recently too. They were legitimate news articles. So facebook’s *standards* are…enigmatic and variable. Shocking, I know.
Ken
@Baud: No, the Brexit consummation will be marked by the first thirty-five-mile-long tailback[*] of British trucks stopped at the customs checkpoint.
[*] British for “traffic jam”.
debbie
Just wow! How big is the space?
There’s a home about a half mile from me with a side yard that fills with irises every spring. Tiny in comparison, but I make sure to walk by as often as possible.
OzarkHillbilly
Facebook’s standards are…. Flexible, yeah that’s the word:
Facebook ads are spreading lies about anti-HIV drug PrEP. The company won’t act
Amir Khalid
@Ken:
Ahem. The British don’t call them trucks; they call them lorries.
Ken
@Amir Khalid: I should have remembered that, since I got “tailback” from Good Omens and it also uses lorries; articulated lorries at that.
How about “miles”? I have this vague impression that despite years of being on the metric system, Britain still uses the Imperial units for some things.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ken:
One day on this cruise, we sat next to a British couple at lunch. Brexit came up and I said something like there’d be long lines at the border. He said oh they’d have to work all that out. Like it was just some simple thing and of course they’d do it.
Basically he seemed to think things could be arranged to go on as they’ve been except the UK could make its own rules and everyone else would agree.
OzarkHillbilly
Anne’s Xmas post yesterday included a JJ McNabb tweet that led me to this funny and educational thread, so I’m posting it here (it is somewhat garden related) for those who missed it:
Patrick S. Tomlinson @stealthygeek
charluckles
The best thing about irises is how easy they are to grow and share. I got my start with a box from a well-established neighbor and then over the past few years, I have spread the love to a host of friends and neighbors. Keep their feet a little wet and their knees dry and they will do everything else.
Immanentize
Good Sunday Morning, All.
I love Irises too. My Mom’s Mom, truly a product of the American Victorian Age (she was born in 1891), used to hybridize her own also in the ’30s. I have no bulbs, but they were yellow and brown beauties. Also a set of lavender and whites. And, at least when I was young, they seemed so tall.
Thank you, Mike in OLY for shaking that memory loose just days before I return to Sister Winter.
Mike in Oly
@satby: They don’t have to be expensive. One of the joys of older varieties is the cheap price. Also, I recommend Blue Birid Iris Haven in Somerset CA. Mary has an amazing collection of old and new and great prices.
Mike in Oly
@anastasiobeaverhausen: Yes! The Historic Iris Preservation Society maintains lists of irises being sold commercially as well as in member collections. You could check with our commercial source chairperson and our databank chairperson. Contact info is on the HIPS website. https://www.historiciris.org/contact-lists/ They might have leads for you. If you give me your grandfather’s name I might be able to help too.
MomSense
How I love irises. This has me thinking about places in my garden I could tuck irises in colors I didn’t know existed. If I plant irises and lilies together, I could get some nice color and height early from the irises and then when they pass the lilies would take over. Hmmm, time to start dreaming.
Mike in Oly
@debbie: My iris bed is six feet deep by 30 feet wide. I have them planted too close together but I am greedy. :)
JPL
@mrmoshpotato: My initial facebook account used a pen name. Someone questioned my identity and since I didn’t have a fake i.d to match the name, I was shut down.
JPL
@Mike in Oly: It’s beautiful.
satby
@Mike in Oly: thank you! I’ll check out Blue Birid Iris Haven!
Steeplejack (phone)
@satby:
They’re on Facebook.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mike in Oly: We bought a few historic irises at the Mo Bo Garden’s annual STL Iris Society show and sale about 7 years ago and I planted them in the only available space I had around a forsythia. That location is no longer suitable at all and I’ve decided to move them to the only location I have that will truly work for them next to me 22′ long garage. I was only going to make the bed 2′ deep but you’ve now convinced me I want on about 16′ deep. I think I’ll compromise and go with 3′ or 4′ deep.
Sab
@Mike in Oly: This exchange makes me so happy. Balloon Juice is such a weird place. A month ago I found out how to wash machinists laundry. Today a lurker finds out how to research irises. And meanwhile an outdoor Minnesota cat finds a warm home just in time for winter.
anastasiobeaverhausen
@Mike in Oly: Floyd Bralliar. He is listed as entering 9 hybrids, including Giant Bralliar, and Black Eagle.
debbie
@Mike in Oly:
How could you not be?!
Quinerly
@Sab: ❤️
satby
@Sab: INORITE?!?
Immanentize
@anastasiobeaverhausen: Where are these hybrids “listed?”. I’m wondering whether my Grandmother did anything similar. I know she used to compete in Broome County and even the New York State Fair….
Mike in Oly
@anastasiobeaverhausen: Wow, that is an obscure name. Not a one of his is a variety I’ve ever heard of. I’m guessing they did not get wide distribution and are probably lost. But, that said, lost varieties come to light in old collections every year so it cannot hurt to ask the HIPS folks if anyone there has it listed.
raven
The princess informs me we have lots of iris’s and she loves them. . . so there.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Immanentize:
From the Google: the American Iris Society. Try looking for your grandmother there.
ETA: “Biographies of Irisarians.”
Mike in Oly
@Immanentize: The American Iris Society has an Iris Wiki. Pop your grandmother’s name into this search and see if she has a hybridizer page. That should list all her varieties. http://wiki.irises.org/Main/WebSearch?tab=search&search=&scope=topic&web=all&order=topic&type=keyword&limit=all
Lapassionara
@Quinerly: Hi, Quinerly. Are you in St Louis these days, or North Carolina?
good morning, everyone.
brettvk
Thank you for this. I adore irises and wish I had more garden room for them. One of my earliest memories – I must have been just walking – is coming face-to-face with a purple iris just at eye level and noticing the wonderful iridescence (heh) of the petals in the sunlight and the luscious scent.
O. Felix Culpa
Ah, this conversation is one of the many things I love about BJ. Thank you Mike in Oly and everyone else for your contributions.
On a politics note, I’d like to recommend Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American.” She’s a professor of American History at Boston College and writes excellent, incisive analyses of the Trump presidency and impeachment hearings. Here’s her most recent offering and you can subscribe to getting her newsletter via email.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mike in Oly
I went down the rabbit hole of “noted irisarians” and found this:
It made it sound sort of like they were at war with the peonistas!
Mike in Oly
@Steeplejack (phone): I love that!
Sab
@O. Felix Culpa: Thank you. I had not heard of her.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: ?Hot damn, traffic jam, you morons voted for a fucking scam?
O. Felix Culpa
@Sab: A friend recommended her to me about a month ago and she’s become one of the few writers in the firehose of political writing I read regularly these days. Apart from Balloon Juice of course.
debbie
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’ve subscribed. Thanks.
Steeplejack (phone)
@O. Felix Culpa:
Excellent piece. Thanks!
mrmoshpotato
@JPL: So you’re not interested? Ok fair enough. :)
Quinerly
@satby: I’m curious. What were the posts that were flagged? Someone you are “friends” with flagging? My circle is so small. There are only 3 people in my FB friends circle that I have never met in person. That’s just me. Never had any Trump supporters and got rid of the rabid Bernie supporters in 2016 or immediately after.
mrmoshpotato
Nominating.
schrodingers_cat
India is burning and I feel angry and helpless.
laura
Deep blue Irises just get me! I like them with brown because they make each other pop.
The zinnia are getting pretty scraggy looking, but the bees and hummingbirds are still working them over on the regular so I can’t see pulling them up just yet. The orange tree is HEAVY with fruit and we’ll start picking today for the holiday stockings and other gifts. Speaking of – Satby’s soaps are so very good. I tried to match the scent to the person and struggled to keep the “these are for me” pile small.
Spouse and I broached the subject of Christmas tree and the two wild kittens. We’re considering a small tree to lay on its side and scatter broken ornaments around it to save time.
It’s the last trip to the farmers market this morning to add to the gifts horde to get into the delivery stream this week – and stuff for the soup of the week. Torn between minestrone and vegetable barley beef.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: I’m sorry. It’s unutterably painful to watch the destruction of a place one loves and be unable to stop it. My heartfelt sympathies.
Quinerly
@Lapassionara: Poco and I came to NC to rebuild the beach place from Florence damage and to wage war with the HOA Board over insurance money and what is turning out to be possibly insurance fraud by some Board members. We were to be here a month. That was the beginning of October. Long story short… the beach condo is back together after dealing with mostly shitty contractors/vendors and going on the market, my fond and happy memories of 42 years have been erased (can’t stand the sight of the ocean), and my attorney is filing suit against the Board. I have been trying to get on the road for a few days to chauffeur Poco back to St Louis, but now this weather is coming in. Doesn’t look good for me on my usual route to Charleston, West Virginia, my halfway point from Pitt County, NC for a 6 AM departure tomorrow. Holding pattern. Poco is snoring while I fret.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: Its deliberate and people I know and love support this unspeakably evil duo (Modi and Shah) and their poisonous ideology.
WaterGirl
@satby: where’s the bread?
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat: *hugs* I’ve read some of your comments about Indian politics (and thank you for sharing them and informing us about the world) but I don’t know enough to comment intelligently myself. I’m sorry for what going on.
WaterGirl
@satby: Selective application of rules. How very Republican!
satby
@Quinerly: one was a share from Occupy Democrats that I’ve seen since on other walls without a problem but branded as “hate speech” on mine, I forget the other two but also shared from other friends’ walls. I think I know who it might be, there’s a couple of childhood friends who are rabidly right wing I have unfollowed but not unfriended. On the other hand, I make all my posts public so it could be friends of friends who follow me. IDGAF, I like to think the onslaught of news from outside their bubbles at least shuts the RWNJs up.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
I relate to this as it describes me and most of my family. Sadly, this seems to be the way the entire world is shifting. I can’t imagine what it will take to get it all back on the right track.
satby
@WaterGirl: forgot the bread!!!?
schrodingers_cat
@mrmoshpotato: I am writing a post and will ask AL to front page it. Hopefully that will give it more context.
satby
@Mike in Oly: uh-oh, I’m in trouble now ?
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
Even worse.
?
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat: Sounds good, but, just to be clear, it’s my fault for skipping over some comments.
I’ll be sure to give your post a good read. Thanks again.
schrodingers_cat
Lawyers and activists of Balloon Juice can some pressure be brought on Twitter? The BJP is using Twitter to amplify their Radio Rwanda messages with bots and trolls.
schrodingers_cat
BJP also uses Whatsapp a Facebook app to spread fake memes and incendiary rhetoric, which is dutifully spread by many older relatives who seem to have lost all ability to discern truth from lies.
West of the Rockies
@Mike in Oly:
Gorgeous blooms, sir! We inherited a yard full of them in ’74 in Paradise, CA.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Ability or will?
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Do you report the posts when you see them
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: Yes I do. I have got Twitter to take action against several. But it feels like a drop in the bucket.
Quinerly
@satby: a lot can be said for keeping social media circle small. I have lots of issues with FB but it is still great for getting my small circle together for events, concerts and promoting clubs/music/restaurants. I’m out of town and an acquaintance (friend but not that close) lost his 31 year old son (who I also know) about 10 days ago. I probably wouldn’t have learned of it until I got back but for FB. Point being….. FB being used for good not evil as I have been known to say. Very moving tributes, posts, music, pictures, art posted to the father and son’s pages. These are the things to me that make FB worthwhile. I know it seems strange to say a tragic death made something worthwhile but I have it on my mind b/c so recent and I wasn’t there for the funeral and tributes (both father and son musicians), but in a way it was like I was there and the father knows I was reaching out and following, as were others who couldn’t be there in person. Not even sure why I diverged on this path about singing praises of FB. .. Less angst and arguments, though, if your circle is small and you really know your “friends.” I also feel it accomplishes nothing to argue on friends’ pages with people you don’t know. Not changing anyone’s minds.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Both. BJP tells them what they want to hear. How as Hindu Brahmins they are the bestest of the best.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Every drop counts. I can’t imagine there aren’t others doing the same thing.
Quinerly
@Lapassionara: Poco and came to NC to rebuild the beach place from Florence damage and to wage war with the HOA Board over insurance money and what is turning out to be possibly insurance fraud by some Board members. We were to be here a month. That was the beginning of October. Long story short… the beach condo is back together after dealing with mostly shitty contractors/vendors and going on the market, my fond and happy memories of 42 years have been erased (can’t stand the sight of the ocean), and my attorney is filing suit against the Board. I have been trying to get on the road for a few days to chauffeur Poco back to St Louis, but now this weather is coming in. Doesn’t look good for me on my usual route to Charleston, West Virginia, my halfway point from Pitt County, NC for a 6 AM departure tomorrow. Holding pattern. Poco is snoring while I fret.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: I also started posting on Twitter since late May, where I used to just lurk before because RWNJ handles >> any sane perspectives on Indian political Twitter.
Quinerly
Apologies for the duplicate posts. I have no clue.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Story the world over.
debbie
@Baud:
They’ve even oozed their way into my FB group that only posts phtotos of roses!
JPL
@Quinerly: Safe travels for you and Poco.
stinger
Mike in Oly, those are simply gorgeous flowers (and pictures thereof).
When I was a child, our neighbor was a retiree with a wonderful flower-and-vegetable garden, and his specialty was iris. He kept a guest book for garden visitors, and it was filled with names from all over the country — often his fellow snowbirds whom he’d met wintering in McAllen, Texas. They’d drive to Iowa in the late spring to see him and his irises. This was in the ’50s and ’60s, so what he had would now be “historic”!
When he died, his family took most of the irises, the house eventually came down, and the homestead is reverting to wilderness. But I now live on my grandparents’ old place, a few miles away, and there was one iris variety still here when I moved in 30 years ago (irises live forever). Just this past fall I was able to identify the variety name, and as my grandmother wasn’t much of a flower gardener, I’m pretty sure the original plant was a gift from the neighbor — it was probably a new release at the time. My grandparents had resided with him briefly a few years earlier.
I’m thrilled to be cultivating a flower with both those “strains” of my own heritage.
Baud
@debbie:
How does one lie about roses?
satby
Oh, I agree! You and I often share similar articles, the difference is that I’m doing it partially aimed at my lurker RWNJ acquaintances. I’m striking a blow against their Fox Noise bubble. One in particular (my suspect) occasionally is so triggered she feels a need to argue with me. No idea why, nor why she doesn’t unfollow me though I suspect for all of them it’s because my shares are from such a wide range of sources that it interests them even if they disagree. The personal stuff on FB is fine, but not my primary interest. Currently gritting my teeth through multiple “10 Days of Grandma” posts because I am fond of my friends even though I don’t particularly want 10 solid days of grandkid pics.
stinger
@anastasiobeaverhausen: I haven’t read the rest of the comments yet, but I was able to identify a variety that I’ve had for decades (and knew as a child) by looking through the Schreiner’s online catalogue.
There are probably better ways! Good luck!
Miss Bianca
@WereBear: Oh, that is hilarious! Just read that story out loud to the resident headbanger in this household. He found it tres amusant as well!
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Dorothy, I want to ask them if they’ll torpedo the Chunnel. Or if they can be certain that France won’t.
And can you quit bragging about your cruise???
(Actually, I hope you’ll have OTR pix to share.)
stinger
@Mike in Oly: I’ve bookmarked this site as well as the Bluebird Haven — thanks!
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize:
@Mike in Oly: How does one hybridize irises (irisi?) anyway.
These photos are so lovely. Makes me miss my house in Paonia, which came with a full complement of yellow, russet, and brown irises. How cold hardy are they? I’m up at almost 9,000 feet above sea level now, and we have a very short growing season.
TomatoQueen
@Baud: I knew two competitive elderly ladies who regularly lied to each other (and anyone else within earshot) about what to do with roses. These were Ladies with Money, too, so there was real life proof (one Nantucket garden, one Litchfield, CT) of who was right, or who was spending more money that year. I don’t think they knew a damn thing, but both lived into their late eighties so it was a rivalry kept them alive.
West of the Rockies
@Baud:
Sadly true… Xenophobia, fear of foreigners, resentment… It is in all cultures. The US, Europe, India, Australia, Tutsi vs Hutu… Seems to be as predictable as a pendulum swing.
debbie
@Baud:
Something stupid like “MAGA Red is the Best!”
TomatoQueen
This post is lovely. My mother was a great gardener and among her many triumphs was her iris rescue in the troubled places where nothing else would grow. She could coax an iris right along. One variety she loved was Beverly Sills, a pale apricot that was almost white with direct light on it, shading to coral. I hadn’t seen it offered in many years, but there it is in BlueBirdHaven’s feast of a catalogue. Thanks.
oldgold
In times of madness an iris garden can offer peace and inspiration.
In 1889 Van Gogh, mad as a hatter and missing an ear, entered an asylum. In the asylum, between attacks from madness, Van Gogh devoted himself to his art with a desperate determination, knowing that this alone might save him.
“Irises” was the first painting Van Gogh started after arriving at the asylum. The flowers were growing in a small garden near his asylum cell. In all, Van Gogh did four studies of the iris. He then went on to paint “The Starry Night.”
Van Gogh: “I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
Baud
@debbie: Sad!
You should throw “why do you have to politicIze everything” back In their faces.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steeplejack (phone):
I did some research and think I’m going to get a Motorola MB7621 modem, assuming Cox has them in stock. Somebody warn me if I’m making a mistake.
Also discovered in my research that my router (Netgear N600 WNDR3700v3) might be older than my modem! It’s working fine, but I’ll see how it stands up to the awesome power of the new modem. My whole cyber infrastructure may be crumbling before my eyes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@stinger:
LOL. No way was I going to start a Brexit fight!
I sent some pathetic pics to OTR. I assume they’ll show up eventually. Unfortunately, I did things like forget my phone in Buenos Aires and take no pics at all in Barcelona or Malaga. Still, there are some.
Baud
@TomatoQueen: As long as firearms weren’t involved.
debbie
@Baud:
Someone has usually done that before I see the post. Just as well; I wouldn’t want them trolling my page. I do always report them. And hate them.
Cathie from Canada
My goodness I had no idea that anyone could collect irises – what a beautiful post. Thank you so much.
wmd
Seeing Silverton Oregon named reminded me of about buying Iris from Cooley’s. I’d heard they had gone out of business. I visited the farm back in 1996 during bloom season and bought from them a few times in the next few years. That area of Oregon seems to be a hotbed for Iris breeding. I hope that the there was conservation done on their varieties.
I need to get back to gardening. It’s mostly gone by the wayside for a decade and it had been a joy for a lot of my life. It’s sad that a failed relationship ending corresponds with putting the activity aside. Subsequent confounding factors piled up… and aren’t an issue currently.
laura
@Quinerly: I have no clue.
You know what you did.
(BillinGlendale must be sleeping in, so I’m acting in his stead.) ?
Re the HOA lawsuit – please keep us informed, those things are of the devil generally and the freedom from law is just a convenient cover for fuckery IMHO.
Quinerly
@satby: different strokes, as they say.
(I never had children. Friends’ family pictures are interesting to me this time of the year. “Facebook being used for good, not evil.”)
Miss Bianca
@Quinerly: Sorry to hear about your HOA woes.I am working on a story right now for my local paper about a fire truck, a local fire district substation, and no fewer than *four* HOAs all in disagreement about who should pay for said truck, and it has only strengthened my determination never, ever, to live anywhere that has an HOA in place.
Immanentize
@Quinerly: I really suggest that the best way to beat the weather is drive back to St.L. via Boston. K?
And, HOA committees are filled with petty crooks and tyrants. Trump proving grounds.
Woot to poco
Quinerly
@laura: I did a long post on the beach shit show some weeks back. In short, Lloyd’s of London was very generous. It’s what you call an “All In” policy that pays for damage to interior units including all upgrades (saves owners $ on their personal HO6 policies). The Pres used his friend who is connected to a Servpro franchise for mitigation right after the storm. I still believe the units weren’t that badly damaged but Servpro hacked them to pieces and over billed by $300,000 (actually flagged by Lloyd’s as fraud, wouldn’t pay). Servpro backed off of those charges after the push back, yet the Pres had wanted to pay them. The $ received for the individual units were earmarked by Lloyd’s per unit but the Board didn’t segregate those funds from the funds received for common area and exterior damage. They just started spending everything on exterior and on a beautification project that had been discussed for 10 years. Now they are running out of $ before paying the individual unit owners their $ (Lloyd’s sent the $$ in January) and have borrowed $115,000 and are assessing us $5000 in order to have the funds that Lloyd’s paid in January to turn around to pay us for our damage. Most of the Board members have HO6 policies that will pay for assessments if called “storm damage.” So they are calling the loan and assessments “storm damage.” Problem is most of us don’t have that, plus it really isn’t storm damage. They got $1.6 million for storm damage total (inside and out) and wasted part of it with a crappy contractor with no oversight and the larger portion spent on a beautification project that had nothing to do with storm damage. And, then there’s the Board member who brags about having her place listed as her primary residence on her insurance even though she lives 2 hrs away and it’s her second home… Extra perks! And the Pres who pressured the contractor to hire the President’s friend as project manager (the friend has multiple DWIs, can’t drive, arrests for breaking and entering, identity theft) so that the project manager could live in the President’s unit and complete his unit utilizing his free labor in exchange, all while the President collects loss rentals on his HO6. I’m actually just getting started…..
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: I feel stressed out just reading that.
Quinerly
@WaterGirl: welcome to poor Poco’s world.
Quinerly
@Immanentize: If we hadn’t been gone over 2 months and plan to leave for NM on 1/27, I would seriously consider taking you up on your sweet offer. I hear New England is so very lovely in the dead of winter. ?
Quinerly
@Miss Bianca: this was my family beach place for 42 years. Small complex of 46 units, each unit oceanfront, 1100 square feet. Never ever these problems. The old guard has essentially died out. The people running it now have been there only in last 10 years. The President less than 5 years. He’s a “financial planner” by trade.
(and for the pure gossip factor, in the last year, he came home early from financial planning ? and caught his wife in bed with his best friend and neighbor… At their home, not beach place. The few old women of the “old guard” that are left feel so sorry for him now that they agree with anything he says.)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quinerly:
Good lord. Talk about a nest of vipers.
Quinerly
Did I kill the thread??
Quinerly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: all Trump supporters too. I kid you not.
Miss Bianca
@Quinerly: Sounds like the asshole deserved it. But this is why I hate HOAs – seems like the worst, most venal people end up in charge of them, most of the time.
Quinerly
@Miss Bianca: who knows if the wife fucking around story is even true. He’s a proven liar. Two very small children and wife who always walked a few steps behind him I had him pegged as an abuser a couple of years ago. Maybe she just got away and he made up the story for sympathy. New, very young girlfriend within weeks. The sympathetic old guard says, “James deserves happiness with what he has gone through. The wife was never social, never got involved in the complex.” So who really knows?
CapnMubbers
@West of the Rockies: Was it on Buschmann Road? That was an amazing display of iris!
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: No kidding! He can’t take in the meaning, but he surely gets the drift of the emotions.
Aleta
Horrible.
Around the state here, individuals’ homeowner insurance polices are being cancelled for things that were not considered a problem before. They’re told to apply to high risk companies (though they are not in areas defined as high risk) until expensive work is done.
Ben Cisco
@Steeplejack (phone): Steep, I may be too late but think about the Arris SB8200. It’s been rock solid for a couple of years now.
Mike in Oly
@West of the Rockies: I would love to have seen what you inherited! Must have been a treasure trove of oldies.
Mike in Oly
@stinger: What a great childhood memory, and a lovely relic to grow and enjoy to keep that memory alive. I have fond memories of my grandmother’s iris beds, thos she only had a dozen or so varieties she grew them in huge clumps and there were hundreds of blooms at once. Such a sight to see!
Mike in Oly
@Miss Bianca: It is super easy. Lots of videos on youtube walk you thru it. Here’s one: https://youtu.be/PgA45TXFF5s
The tough part is getting the seeds to grow and then getting a decent flower. The experts say you can get about one good flower out of every thousand seeds. I’ve grown maybe three dozens seedlings to bloom over the years and have kept two of them. But while they amuse me they are not worth naming and introducing. I wish I had the space to grow more seedlings to see what they will be. I save seed from bee crossed pods every year. Irises are very cold hardy. I know they grow in zone 3 up in Canada.
Mike in Oly
@wmd: Cooley’s Gardens was a lovely place. I was happy to have had the chance to see it before Rick Ernst suddenly passed away at far too young an age and the garden was closed. They were in business from 1928 to 2011. I believe Schreiner’s took over most of their field stock. I’d love to know what became of Rick’s seedlings under consideration. And yes, that whole area is iris central. Perfect climate for them and none of the problems with rot and borers like they have east of the Rockies.
The Lodger
@wmd: There are big peony and dahlia farms in that part of Oregon, too. (I didn’t read to the end before posting, I apologize if someone already said that. )
West of the Rockies
@CapnMubbers:
Clark Road above Wagstaff. Sounds like you really know the old town!
Troubling Information
I have been reading this blog for I think ten years and have finally been moved to participate. Fantastic iris collection! Please keep posting accounts of its development and majesty.