Re: CULT: Foliage!


Anner says,
>I have
>been thinking about writing an impassioned little essay on the appreciation
>of irises as foliage plants, an area in which I feel they are grossly
>underappreciated.
>
Write that article, Anner.

I discovered how much my "homely" iris foliage contributes last summer when
I stripped the TBs from the mixed flower bed in front of the house and
donated them to the sale. I thought I was doing the right thing in ending
my haphazard cultural practice of mixing TBs with water-hungry roses and
whatnot, even though the TBs weren't especially prone to rot where they
were.
Two months later I was still standing in front of that flowerbed trying to
figure out *what* could be done to un-ruin it. What once pleased my eye now
seemed haphazard and oddly bare.

The jagged edges of the fans provide a unique profile. Most of the other
bedding plants appropriate for narrow displays like mine make mounds or
shoot up spires. I can't think of another foliage plant with similar visual
impact that wouldn't require three times the foot room.

Yeah, foliage! (I put some TBs back in the front bed, by the way. The
crickets are a problem, so I dump diatomaceous earth on the rhizomes.
They're worth it!)

celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas ... where today I slapped the first mosquito of 1997.




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