Re: OT-HUMOR:Re: [iris-photos] Bleach water and Thistle tea

I think it wouldn't hurt unless you already have acidic soil.

Patrick
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Cathy<k*@earthlink.net>
  To: iris@hort.net<i*@hort.net> ;
iris-photos@yahoogroups.com<i*@yahoogroups.com>
  Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 7:49 AM
  Subject: [iris] OT-HUMOR:Re: [iris-photos] Bleach water and Thistle tea


  Patrick Orr wrote:

  > Hi Griff,
  >
  > I'll tell you a funny story.
  >

  Great story and well told Patrick. The only use of thistle I have seen
  apart from bee food! The previous owner grew thistle and fennel for his
  bees so we have plenty. Think it will be any good for iris?

  Michael M.

  > Years ago about 30 friends of mine and I used to go camping out in the
  > desert.  The area we selected up near Cortez Junction had a stream
  > lined with black basalt rock and tall trees that had roots spiraling
  > over the ground.  There were a lot of indigenous herbs growing here
  > that the American Indians used to use in centuries past...horehound,
  > mullein, watercress, datura (thorn apple), broom, etc.
  >
  > Also, there were wild grape vines and many flowering weeds of various
  > types (wildflowers) that I did not know the names of.
  >
  > We used to go camping up to 5 or 6 times every year, and each time I
  > would dig something interesting and pot it, and transport it back to
  > my garden in Phoenix.
  >
  > My friend Gerry, who lived next door to me in the duplex, used to have
  > a nursery in Florida, and knew a lot about plants.  One night when I
  > was off doing something, he told the rest of our friends he was really
  > amazed that the plants I bring back not only live, but thrive.
  > Apparently, he told them that plants taken from the wild do not
  > usually make it, and you should keep the north side of the plant
  > facing north etc, and that what I do should not live.  He said I
  > apparently don't know that and nobody has told the plants that either,
  > because they grow for me.
  >
  > Tom Barryhill, who owned and ran Barryhill Nursery in Black Canyon
  > City was visiting us that trip (he rarely went camping with us), and
  > he and Gerry decided they were going to pull a nasty little joke on me.
  >
  > The next day, Tom asked which ones of us would like to go on a nature
  > walk and he would show us all the medicinal herbs that grow around the
  > area, and of course I went, along with everyone else.  Most of the
  > herbs I knew of, but toward the end of the tour, Tom pointed at a weed
  > looking thing and said it was a wild artichoke.  The Indians used to
  > eat them all the time.
  >
  > He knew, as did the others that I would be digging and transplanting
  > that wild artichoke home to grow and eat.
  >
  > So, I dug it and transplanted it into a one gallon pot, brought it
  > back to Phoenix, and I planted it in a planter 1 foot cubed.  I then
  > watered it, fertilized it, pruned the dead leaves from it, watched it
  > grow and get bigger and bigger.  Soon those five inch silver green
  > leaves in a star shape got about 2 feet long each.  It was a very
  > unusual looking plant.  People would come over and would marvel at my
  > wild artichoke plant.
  >
  > Then one day, I noticed it was developing a stalk, and boy did I get
  > excited.  The stalk grew taller and taller and taller until it was
  > about 5 feet tall, and at the very top, it was beginning to form
  > ahead.  In the mean time, I kept up my watering, fertilizing, pruning,
  > weeding, and caring for this plant like it was the only one in the
  > world because I wanted a scrumptious artichoke to develop.
  >
  > The day finally came when I felt it was of a size and maturity to
  > harvest.  I remember looking at it before going to work thinking I
  > would have it for dinner that night.
  >
  > However, when I got home I looked at it and horror of horrors, the
  > darned thing was blooming!!!  Worst of all, I then recognized the
  > plant and realized what it was...
  >
  > It was one of those G.D.THISTLE plants that grow on the side of the
  > roads out in the desert!!!!!!!!!   I couldn't believe it!!!!  Here,
  > for months, I had been watering, fertilizing, weeding, pruning a
  > fricken WEED for gawds sakes!  Oh was I pissed!
  >
  > I went next door to get my neighbor to show him, and he came out and I
  > told him what it was and he roared and roared.  He said he knew all
  > about it and they were playing a joke on me because they knew I would
  > drag the plant back to Phoenix.  He said I had the most healthiest
  > weed on the planet and that he had been giving Tommy weekly reports on
  > Patrick's Weed, and they got a lot of laughter out of it...for one
  > thing it should have died and didn't.  Then it grew into a master
  > specimen, and I had not yet recognized it!  They just thought that to
  > be the funniest thing (and also one of the most diabolical tricks)
  > they have ever done to someone.  He said my face was just RED.
  >
  > I ended up getting the last laugh, however.  I remember learning when
  > I was over in Germany that they would cut up thistle plants there and
  > rot them in water until they turned black, and that tomato plants just
  > LOVED that water. So I chopped up the thistle plant with the lawn
  > mower and put it into water until it turned black and used it on my
  > tomatoes, and it sure picked them up quite a bit.
  >
  > And my neighbor admitted they were the best tomatoes ever!
  >
  > So, yes, if you do not know you can't do something, you could have
  > great success!
  >
  > Patrick
  >
  >     ----- Original Message -----
  >     *From:* J. Griffin Crump
<j*@erols.com<j*@erols.com>>
  >     *To:* iris-photos@yahoogroups.com<i*@yahoogroups.com>
  >
<i*@yahoogroups.com<i*@yahoogroups.com>>
  >     *Sent:* Tuesday, August 24, 2004 11:45 AM
  >     *Subject:* Re: [iris-photos] Bleach water
  >
  >     *Patrick  --  You remind me that one of the nice things in life is
  >     the number of "impossible" things accomplished because nobody told
  >     you beforehand that you couldn't. --  Griff*
  >
  >         ----- Original Message -----
  >         *From:* Kitty <k*@ojai.net<k*@ojai.net>>
  >         *To:*
iris-photos@yahoogroups.com<i*@yahoogroups.com>
  >
<i*@yahoogroups.com<i*@yahoogroups.com>>
  >         *Sent:* Tuesday, August 24, 2004 11:13 AM
  >         *Subject:* Re: [iris-photos] Bleach water
  >
  >             . . . .   (One of the things I was told as fact is that
  >             you cannot grow SDB's in the desert!  Well, I have tried
  >             it and found that to be wrong.  Matter of fact, they
  >             rebloom here too!)
  >
  >             Patrick Orr
  >             Phoenix, AZ  Zone 9
  >             USA
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  > **

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