Iris domestica

Theladygardens@aol.com Theladygardens@aol.com
Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:00:05 PDT
Dennis and others.  Maybe your joke is right on  track. I. britanny 
spearseinsis.   I have over 1000  different iris hybrids in my garden.  I have 
frequently given teenagers  iris to grow because of the names.  A few young men have 
asked to grow an  iris called 'Topples Dancer' and I have given it to them.  
Many people pick an iris because of the name it has.  Sometimes it has  
special meaning for them, sometimes they just like it.  
An iris named 'Megan Elizabeth' got one father excited, it was the names of  
his two daughters, he had to have that iris.  
After an article appeared in the SF newspaper about my garden and the hours  
I opened it to share with the public, 4 young men came from San Francisco just 
 to see the iris named 'Baboon Bottom'.  
People often are looking for an iris they have heard of and never seen,  just 
because the name interested them.
A few times  young couples have shown up and the boys are mumbling  about 
this not being their idea but their dates wanted to come here, mumble  mumble.   
I always give the males a tablet and pencil and suggest they  amuse themselves 
by making up sentences using only the names of the iris, and I  suggest a 
few.  They get so amused at what they come up with it almost  becomes a 
competition among their group and they stay for hours, really enjoying  themselves.  
Not infrequently this leads to questions that require answers  where they are 
really learning something and becoming interested.
There is a series of iris named after the Harry Potter characters and I  want 
all of those myself.  
Some areas of the garden have groupings of iris by subject, such as the  
Space area (Titan's Glory, Starship Enterprise, Wing Commander, and  others)  the 
marriage area (Significant Other, With This Ring, Lovers Lane  and others) and 
the animal area (Chocolate Moose, Gnu Blues, Python's parasol,  etc).   We 
get some amusement out of doing this with some of the  iris.
Carolyn in Los Gatos


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