Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Miniature Bearded Irises

Bloom after Dutch Irises, but before the Florentine Irises, which are followed by the German Bearded Irises. I associate the minis with garage sales (the Michigan equivalent of yard sales because we need cover in case of rainfall) because one year everyone who walked by the blooming mini irises (one their way up the driveway to the sale) wanted to buy them. To heck with the one dollar blue jeans!






I probably could have made some money off of them, but I didn't sell them, and I don't trade my irises because I wouldn't want to plague anyone else with my iris borers. You see the shot holes in a few of the leaves? I've had iris borers for years, some years worse than others. I spoke on the subject to an iris expert in his own yard one time and he told me of the extreme measures needed to attempt to defeat borers (and he did battle them), and I decided right then and there that life was too short to use nukes in my garden.
It kind of defeats the purpose of gardening when you turn away from nature, and nurture, and life giving, doesn't it? Just wrap the whole thing in a coating of chemicals?
I'll settle on digging and cleaning, and accept the results.

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