Woke up way too early, unsuccessfully trying to go back to sleep when I remembered where I got the purples that I will be rehoming. (No, I don't know why I remembered then, I wasn't even thinking about Iris!
) During one of its several incarnations, my former company owned an L-shaped, three+ acre lot in an industrial area. Two of those acres were the warehouse/office building and parking lot and covered the stem of the L. The remaining acre was a raised field which was later discovered to be an old fill lot. A railroad spur ran across the back of the property (fenced off as far as you could see in either direction), but had been unused for so long it looked like a tree lined creek instead--which, because the rails were gone, we thought it was for the longest time. The properties to the west were regular warehouses on flat, bare ground. The property to the east alongside the field was an old-school, quonset hut, junked-up-lot auto body shop with stacks of parts leaning against a couple of Cottonwoods and some scrubby shrubs growing along the fence line between the two properties. Our company owner had a Siberian Husky that came to the office with him everyday and we took turns walking her in the field (or chasing her down when she escaped, but that is another story). One day that first Spring she and I were roaming around the back corner by the junkyard lot when I saw something just downslope from where we were walking. Is it? Nah, couldn't be, not here. Could it? Well, howz about that! Iris. For 15 feet along the spur fence line and 30 feet along the junkyard fence line were Iris. Lots and lots of Iris. And Passionvine (who knew it was so tough?). And some other flowering plants like Verbena. But mainly Iris. Wow. How in the world did they get in this place? (This is where the old fill lot discovery was made
) Then they bloomed--and I started digging, which, given the degree of the slope, was an adventure in itself.
While prying up the rhizomes, I wondered who had tended and cared for them, what happened to the house from which they had come, how many seasons had they been blooming unseen. Never will get those answers, but I do get to pass on the questions to folks who can remember the story for me when I forget again, as I will...just hopefully not as soon as I think--or fear--that I will.
Okay, so maybe it reads as fanciful, but it is a true story and I already wrote it, so it gets posted.
I love a good iris story just about as much as I love the iris , themselves !! ...Arlyn
A concrete company owns the property now, but you can just see the field and some of the trees center right.
I bet it was stunning to see all those beauties blooming. Great story. 
