Re: OT: Attention Alaskan members.

william b. cook wrote:
> 
>       According to the Weather Channel Web Site, daytime temperatures in
> southern Alaska are running mostly in the 40's F with some low 50's in the
> interior.  With this, I guess the snow pack is starting to melt.
>      Let us know when you have your first flower of any type, and
> especially your first Iris.


Hi to you, Mark -

Yes, you're right, the snow pack is melting, but it's usually variable
this time of year, so I don't get excited about the little ups and
downs. Iris setosa bloom will be roughly June 1st, give or take a week
either way. I'll tell you when I see the first one, though I can already
tell you how it will come about. I will be driving by someone's house
with a great southern exposure, and there will be a big lush clump
planted against the foundation, with at least 4 or 5 blooms opening at
once (this will be prior to June 1st). I will turn off on the nearest
side street, and do a driveby to get another good look, and then I will
circle once more and stop. I kind of soak it in for a little while, and
then all of a sudden my mind is busy analyzing the bloom, trying to
determine its ancestry (what part of the state it came from), and if the
blossom is worthy enough to return in the fall and ask for seeds from
the owner.

I then know the wild populations on the mud flats of the inlet will be
blooming in a week or two. The first time I hike to or land at one of
these wild stands is one of the high spots of my summer, as it sort of
quenches the thirst that builds up over the winter to just stare at
flower after flower after flower. This is always a very poor time for me
to make selections from the wild, as they invariably all look special or
magic. It is also, on the other hand, a little intimidating because as I
look out over an endless expanse of iris, the sheer volume of bloom is
overwhelming, and I actually feel a combination of elation & despair, if
you can imagine such a conflicting emotion. This is sort of how I
imagine you hybridizers must feel in the spring, with the overwhelming
abundance of blooms to analyze. I usually spend most of the day there,
especially if it's a fly-in site, and by the end of the day, I'm pretty
tired of all that purple. I've actually flown back to our homestead a
few times with a greenish yellow reaction going on in my eyes because
I've looked at too much purple during the day, so much so that I can't
read the GPS screen, which has a chartreuse base-color, and I usually
don't want to look at irises for a day or two. 

The weather was 40 degrees on Friday, and then yesterday, sleety snow,
which was miserable to fly in, as everything including the windshield,
kept icing up. It took me half a day to fly back to town, having to land
at three lakes to scrape ice off the plane - what a dog it became. I
almost decided to just camp on the last lake and relax with my sleeping
bag and a good book, except I was expected back, and I didn't want the
rescue possee after me, headed by my husband. And then today, it was a
warm windless 45 degrees. 

The snow is disappearing fast because of the steady increase of daytime
warmth, and there is greenery coming up around south-facing house beds
where the snow melted two weeks ago. I saw a crocus in someone's
southern bed 2 days ago. I need to plant some crocuses - they seem to be
an indicator bloom for everyone.

The pussy willows have been blooming for three weeks, which means snow
melt has reached their roots. This is the first true harbinger of
spring. Everything else follows them. They are the spring flower of
sentiment for me, though not truly a flower.

One other bloom report I forgot to mention - the dog droppings are
coming out of the snow, and budding extravagantly. The fragrance is,
well....not floral.

Kathy Haggstrom
Anchorage, Alaska (zone 3)
hagg@alaska.net
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