I think that most of us have been inspired to love gardening by someone. In my case, it was my grandmother. She always had a large vegetable garden, and flower gardens that encircled her house and the borders of her property. Always there were irises among them. I remember her showing me how I can smell the blooms without hurting them. Inside her house she always had fresh flowers in season. She'd plant whole rows of zinnias, asters, bachelor buttons, gladiolas, and poppies among the rows of vegetables, just so she could have cut flowers in the house all summer. She even let me have a small space so I could grow some things too, usually radishes lettuce, and a few other things. When we would go to visit her, I'd run from the car to go see my little garden.
Summer time was berry picking time, and back then farmers pastured the woodlands. This allowed the wild berries to compete and our whole family would go berry picking in the woods. In the back of our property there was a wet boggy area where we had lots of wild blueberries, and among them there were the wild purple irises. She would always take a break from picking berries to show me the wild irises. As time passed, I remember that she was very happy to learn that they had developed a pink iris. Money was not plentiful in our family, so she had to save a long time to be able to buy it. I remember when it bloomed, she had to show every one that visited the pink iris. I have no idea which one it was, but she loved pink, and that iris brought her much happiness.
When I finally owned my own home, I was able to begin some flower gardens. At the time I was working as an Elementary Principal, so I had only a few beds, and a vegetable garden. 10 hour days were the average, and some were as long as 15 hour days when evening activities and meetings were held, so that was about all the garden I could handle. After retirement, I began adding flower beds in earnest, and among the things I planted, irises were at the top of the list. It is my hope that I can hybridize a pink, or mostly pink iris in honor of my Grandmother. She lived to be within 5 days of her 93rd birthday. She still had a small flower bed that she tended until her death. I hope some day I can plant "her iris" on her grave site.
