Iris

January 20th

Summer before last I was working in my yard one night when the guy that lived three houses up the street stopped his car in front of my house and got out.   I had never actually talked to this guy, but in the evenings he would run by the house several times while I was working in the yard.  He would go by with his dog, run back by a little later to put the dog in the house, and then run back out on his longer run without the dog.  We would always wave and exchange a hello.  He lived in a rental house and had slowly transformed the yard from a weedy mess into a fairly nice lawn with hanging ferns and other plants in the beds in front of the house.  But the night he stopped to talk he told me that he was being transferred and would be leaving the neighborhood.  He told me that he was offering all his plants to the neighbors and offered me some (or all).  The next night he brought down two very heavy ferns and another potted plant.  He told me to help myself to anything else that I wanted. 

I had no intentions to get anything until I walked by a night or two after he moved out and saw these iris.  So after I finished the walk I went back and dug up a few in the approaching darkness.  I had had iris years before and although they only bloom once a year I liked them for bedding plants.  I brought them home and just stuck them down in the front bed that needs to be landscaped.  I knew that they probably would not bloom for a year or two.  I threw a little water on them now and then, but really didn't do much else.  I was glad that I went back and got them because the nimrod so-called professional yard guys that came to mow the yard while the house was vacant mowed down everything in their path.

Last Monday while the weather was nice I worked in the yard most of the day.  Late in the afternoon I just happened to notice the tip of one of the iris was purple.  Yes, yes a bloom!

By yesterday the bloom had become very defined and the stalk was beginning to form. 

January 25th

So far this is the only bloom, but it is enough.  The iris were free and to me that is the best kind of plant.  I doubt if my grandmother ever bought a plant in her life.  They were all from friends and relatives yards, just as she in turned shared cuttings and seeds with others.  I grew up with this philosophy of sharing plants and it makes me feel good to know that the iris I rescued are now giving me a bloom to enjoy.  Just one of those simple little things I love.