Great story, Bonnie!!

Great idea for a thread, Cuzz. So much fun reading.

Your story was beautiful and inspiring Bonnie. You write so elegantly and I wish I could hear you sing.

Some great stories; nice idea Gabe. And welcome to the new ones joining the group just in time for these intros.

I've played some on Dave's and still visit Cubits a little, but mostly I'm on here, for around 2 years I think. Love to grow the oldies and some rarities. You will see me involved in Historic Iris website, magazine "Roots" and other areas. Coming out of the sciences/engineering I tend to be a bit analytic, sometimes too much I suppose. It sometimes does help with id'ing irises though.

We have had 6 kids, and 14 grands and one Westie, and around 4, or is it 6?, temporary "adoptees," all with some music within them. The kids and grands keep us busy just remembering whose birthday is when, and one even has a Japanese Chin.

Moved last summer so a daughter, her husband, 3 kids, dog, 2 cats can be next to us with a large shared yard [but would rather be on 3+ acres for the irises and veggies]. Another daughter and her 2 kids live with us for now and the others are scattered around the east.
Yard is a challenge of builder's dirt/clay, but about 2/3 of the irises I moved survived, so added more. Up to around 200 now. The other iris challenge is rearranging the hastily planted ones after the move so the smaller ones aren't hidden and duplicate colors are not next to each other.

Well here I go, My name is Jen, I'm 35. I live in northern Kentucky, (about 10 minutes from Cincinnati Ohio if that helps anyone) I love all plants that allow me to play in the dirt. I am in sales and work for a wholesale liquor distributor, I am also a retired chef,( working 90 hours a week is not fun!) but still love to cook now that I have more time and still do some private catering for special clients.
I love gardening, cooking, golfing, boating, entertaining and of course my dogs. I have 2 boxers ( that's why screen name Is boxergirl)
I have been collecting Iris for about 5 years now since my husband and I built our house. Last year was my breaking point. I believe I went from 50 or 60 to almost 300. I got into Iris when a lady I met at Zumba brought me a bunch of Iris from her mothers yard as a house warming present.
I have been a member here since August last year. Thanks to Jane who I met at our bluegrass Iris society meeting who told me about it.
I love listening to everyone's stories and seeing what people's personal preferences are.
I personally like to collect the modern tall bearded Iris. But enjoy seeing all types and styles.

Great idea for a thread Gabe!

Hi all! My name is Pam and I have been a member of ATP and Cubits since October of 2013. I live on a small horse farm near Bethlehem, PA with my husband of 40 years - almost - and three dogs and three cats and three horses and a geriatric pony. We have two grown children. Hubby is a civil engineer and I am a retired Special Ed teacher.

I have been collecting and growing iris - mostly tall bearded, for 30 some years. What started as a small group of the basic colors has expanded to over 450 varieties. Some of these are growing in very large patches. The biggest of the gardens is situated on the hillside behind my house.

My horses have always been high on on my list of hobbies. We raised Quarter horses for many years and both my daughter and I continue to ride and show.

"Snork" is representative of my love for all things underwater. Whenever possible, I can be found prowling a coral reef somewhere with my underwater camera in hand. Reef fish are almost as colorful as iris!

Well Bonnie!!! You little secret-keeper, you! Who knew????? What a wonderful story -- and what an interesting and intriguing life you have led. I loved reading every word of it!!

Pam, when we moved from Southern California to Northern California we had 3 horses, 3 cats, 4 dogs, and 3 boats. Doesn't everyone need three boats?

That must be true, cause when we moved here from New Hampshire almost 20 years ago, we brought along a big boat a small fishing boat and a canoe!

At that time we had 5 horses and about 8 rabbits too!

Greetings in the Name of Jesus. I'm John and my wife's name is Barbara. We lived in too many places to mention and we are currently located in south Kansas City. We serve as missionaries in the International House of Prayer. We are both officially 'elderly' in age and feel it.
We bought our current home 4 years ago and immediately started working on gardens. We now have about 600 square feet of garden space, some under trees. Most of our gardens are bearded iris, about 260 or so. We have day lilies as well, all NOID's. Our back yard has 3 very large shade trees that have an 8 square foot garden at the base.
Like everyone else, we have many potted iris, no room in the inn. Currently we have about 30 iris just sitting on the ground waiting for a place to live. We are in the midst of doing a major dig up and relocate of all our iris, trying to find room for the potted and grounded iris with the thought of 'what about the 80 or so newbies due to arrive next month'.
We spend as much time as we can in our back yard while the weather is good. Usually July and August are too hot to be outside so we enjoy this time of year the most.
We enjoy the forums and this is where we get the vast majority of info on the best way to care for iris.

Blessings to you all

I am Randall Dixon I'm in zone 7 East TN I've been here since Dee brought me here in 2012 I've been growing iris as long as I can remember I collected my first iris for my grandmother. It wasn't till she died that I learned I had been collecting for me. I'm 54 with 16 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.I've spent a lifetime working construction and corrugated paper. I grow Talls and arilbreds today. Once grew Siberian , Japanese, Aril, Louisiana and multiple other species. I mostly lurk and read even an old goat like me can learn and teach here are some arilbreds for those not familiar
Tribute to rex


Alakazam

Dragon's Eye

Hello Everyone,

My name is Robin, I am female (I know my name is spelled the boys way) and I am 49 years old. I live in a house in the suburbs of Melbourne Australia with my boyfriend of nearly 20 years who doesn't care about the garden and my cat Oscar who loves the garden but loves destroying it more. I am a former computer programmer and I love science, puzzles, gardening and art. The garden is like a growing piece of art to me. I also enjoy researching my ancestry.

I started growing irises about 7 years ago and I am expecting my first ever hybrid to open this year around October/November. It will probably be the ugliest flower on earth as I was struggling to get any of my irises pregnant and it is a cross between the last 2 irises that bloomed that year (ie: Birthday Surprise x Set To Music).

I hope one day some Aussies join this website so I can trade with them. It's quite lonely here on the other side of the world.

Great stuff guys. Yall all have a great story.Now I feel a left a lot or some out. I've had my coffee so here we go..

Im 35 now and I've worked with dogs since 16. I'm not an "official" dog trainer because I never took any certificate training so I call myself a handler. I trained and helped run a dog training and puppy preschool. I've been the GM of a dog daycare franchise along the east coast for 6 years, but recently transitioned away to run a family painting business.

I'm a army brat of two veterans so I've always lived my life on the road and overseas. I never found a place to call home. I've moved over 20 times and feel addicted to moving, searching for that place I truly love. I primarily grew up in Michigan, but in 2012 made NC my state of residence.

I've played basketball all my life. No NBA, but gifted enough to travel to Japan and Portugal to play ball in other great leagues. I played with several NBA players, have phone # and contacts with some and retirees, but it's a tough world out there for a 6'1 165lb feather weight. I went to college for recess where I played for 1 year also. My body has been through some wear and tear over this short period. MCL tear and repair, broke ankle and severAL sprains. Torn right rotator cuff, fractured wrists. Was basketball worth it? Hell YES! I still play occasionally, but took a major step back since it doesn't pay and insurance isn't free anymore. I'm waiting for the 35+ leagues next year because I can still run laps around most guys around my age and younger though.

I used to grow a fun medicinal plants in Michigan basement when I was younger the science involved led me to growing more "legit" things in others eyes. The entire science of plants is so intriguing to me and just starting growing all I could. Started with veggies, but was beyond bored. Move to lilies, but became bored, which I used for 3 years as a source of spring and early summer money through a wedding planner. Since the move to NC, rabbits have depressed me of my passion of lilies eating almost everything. Then I found out about irises, which I remembered seeing often as a child but never caring. Now this is my possion, hobby, and life at times and I love it, the ups and downs.

I've been lucky enough to meet Leslie @lestv and hopefully others through this friendly community somewhere down the road. This is truly an elite group and definitely one strong community here on garden.org I tend to briefly look thru other forums, but the devil keeps dragging back into here with the iris cult

That's all awesome, Gabe! You remind me of two of my sons. One of them is a basketball addict (and now coaches). The other is a former dog trainer who worked in doggie day care for a long time. Neither have gotten into plants, though! My basketball guy could sure give you a run for your money in the league!

I'm Tom, the Cheese Head from Wisconsin. Speaking of cheese, I grew up in the Northern half of the state in the country near a small town named Gleason, and one of my friend's father was a Cheese Maker in a small cheese factory. I used to go with him to the cheese factory and we would get paid (50 cents) for washing the disks of the cream separator. When the fresh cheese curds were cut and warmed up we would grab a hand full and salt them and enjoy the squeaky cheese curds, yes they would squeak in your mouth when you chewed them. Then we'd promptly run to the general store and spend our money on pop and other sugar filled goodies. Pop was a dime, and many of the ice cream treats were a nickle. It was about 3 miles from our house to town, so we would at times ride our bikes on the dirt roads into town. Other times we would ride my neighbor's ponies into town, bareback, at a full gallop. We never walked them, always at a gallop. I don't know how we didn't kill them.

I attended a one room school for my first through eight grade. We didn't have Kindergarten then yet. I started school a year early. Our Teacher Mrs. Wyant, was a family friend, and thought I was ready. Also there would have been only one in my class if I waited a year, so this way I had a peer in my grade. We had to help with teaching each other, as there was too much to do for one teacher with 8 grades. I remember how I couldn't wait until I was in 3rd grade as then I could help teach the first graders to read. Guess I was destined to be an educator.


Here's a picture of our class, I was in 4th grade here, guess which one I am?

I graduated from HS at age 17, and started College the next year at a County run school to train teachers. After two years you could start teaching, so I started teaching at the ripe old age of 19! After teaching a while I decided I'd like to be a principal some day, so after completing my BS degree, I began working on my MA. Attended the University of Northern Colorado for that. Spent 28 years being an Elementary principal in two different districts. I retired in 2003 and then began my journey down Iris Lane!


The staff had a Christmas party at my house my last year as principal. This is me with my 2 secretaries. Yah, I like wine.

I have enjoyed this thread immensely, and appreciate Gabe starting it! I've enjoyed 'meeting' you all even more! I've used up all my free time this morning, but I'll come back later and introduce myself after I take care of some minor 'details' pictured below.

Hi Tom!! ~~~~(waving)! Good to finally *see* you!

Can we just have a big iris friends party somewhere???

That would be so much fun!!!

Tom, your role call intro speaks worlds to me. I'm a just retired educator who worked in rural schools in New Mexico and Oklahoma for 27 years before heading to overseas education jaunts. One of my favorite roles was working as principal and superintendent of a very small district in Oklahoma. We weren't quite one room, but we had combined grades (e.g., 1&2, 3&4, etc.). My youngest son graduated there in a class of seven. Not quite like your class of 2, but close!

Leon, those critters will keep ya moving all day (and probably all night, too)!