iris love

When it was officially decided that we would be moving to Arizona from our Colorado home and before it really sunk in that there would be so many things we would leave behind, all of my favorite irises had long since bloomed for the season. I knew I didn't want to leave them all behind, but we left in the middle of winter. That is not a time conducive to digging up iris bulbs.

When we first moved to our house in Colorado, I saw an ad in the local newspaper for free iris bulbs. "You dig 'em, you take 'em." Free. We had a huge yard that didn't have a whole lot of flowers at the time, so I thought that was a perfect way to get some flowers. I took Austin with me, he was 2 at the time, and found my way to this home in the country. She had thousands of iris plants that needed to be thinned. So, with shovel and little boy in hand, I made my way through her garden, digging a bag full of bulbs. She said most of them were light lavender, a few dark purple and some a very pretty yellow. She only wanted us to take the lavender ones. My boy's favorite color at the time was yellow, so he was hoping we were getting the yellow ones. She didn't know which were which, as they all looked the same at that point, weeks after their last bloom for the season. I took them home and we planted them. She explained to me that they usually don't bloom until the second year after being transplanted. She was right. Two springs later, we had a beautiful row of irises blooming ever so nicely. She directed us correctly, they were mostly all light lavender. I think there was one yellow and one or two dark purple out of the 30 or so bulbs that I had planted. We felt lucky that we had, by accident, gotten a few other colors. They were very pretty and each year we had more and more plants multiplying, giving me the opportunity to share with other people as well.

Over the years, we had quite a collection of irises blossoming each and every spring. My mother-in-law had a few beautiful bulbs in her yard in New Mexico too and one year she gave me a few of her bulbs. We planted them outside our kitchen window, along with some of the light lavender(needing thinned ) that we already had. I even traded with a friend, some of mine for some of hers. We had a nice collection of flowers in the spring. Iris, columbine, tulips and daffodils to name a few.

So, back to moving. There is really only so much that one can take with them when they move away from a big old house in the country. And my flowers wouldn't be one of them. Or would it? As 'luck' might have it, our home did not sell before we left. So, on one of my visits back, before the house sold, with one more look around my yard, I decided to dig a few bulbs. It wasn't exactly the right time to do it, but I decided I would give it a try. Now, I had a bit of the same dilemma as the lady who gave me the first iris bulbs all those years before. Which were which? I was pretty confident that I knew where some of the favorites were at.

I stuck a couple of the bulbs that I was pretty certain were from my mother-in-law in a pot and planted a few columbine in with them. If it all grew, it would be a nod to our Colorado home. The iris made it and the columbine flourished. And now, two years after transplanting the iris, just as the lady who first gave me the iris bulbs said, they have bloomed! And guess what, they are the bulbs from my mother-in-law! I got the right ones!!

I'm still waiting on a few more. They might take awhile longer to flower, as I was lazy and left them in a bucket with a little dirt around them. They managed to survive and we have just planted them in the ground. So, in a couple of years, or sooner if we are lucky, they will bloom too and we will be able to see what color they are. They are a pretty hardy plant and pretty forgiving when it comes to being dug up,  stuffed in a bag, tossed in a bucket with some dirt, a little sunshine and some water. And then finally, a decent planting like they deserve. It goes to show, no matter where you are planted, good things can happen.

Like the old saying goes... Bloom where you are planted!