RE: HYB: Benefits

Francelle Edwards  Glendale, AZ  Zone 9




iris DIGEST           Friday, August 5 2005           Volume 01 : Number
439



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Hybridizing irises gives us something to look forward to at least two
years in advance.  It keeps us planning for the future even as we know
that our future on this earth is growing shorter.  It gives us
excitement when we wait for a new seedling to bloom as a six year old
waits for Christmas.  It gives us something to get up for and to get out
into the garden to enjoy the fresh air and the fragrance of growing
things..  It gives us needed exercise as we till the soil or hoe the
weeds.

It gives us a sense or awe as we realize that we can chose the parents
but only God can make a flower, and it gives a sense of gratitude for
the new beauties that He gives us.

Francelle Edwards


In honor of Char's "Benefits of an iris garden thread" . . . 
 
I'd like to start a thread called "The Benefits of breeding/hybridizing

irises!"
 
1.  It keeps the mind young/younger!  LOL!  
 
2,  ??   (I'll stop at one benefit since I hope others will  take part!)
 
 
Betty W. in  South-central KY Zone 6



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Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 11:31:06 -0400
From: "Neil A Mogensen" <neilm@charter.net>
Subject: [iris] HYB:Benefits

What a good idea for a thread, Betty!  So many of our topics have been
ploughed and harrowed so many times that we all tend to be repeating
ourselves to the point of being "thread-bare," pardon the pun.

Hmmm.  Benefits of hybridizing?  I'll add one that is a very important
one
for me.

I have had a chronic problem with depression and SAD (seasonal affective
disorder), a miserable way to spend an Idaho winter.  The grey overcast
that
hangs in the deep valley where we lived, lasting from November to March,
was
very difficult to endure.

Only on those rare occasions where Arctic-type air masses with a winter
High
cell spilled over from the Columbia Basin or over the mountains from
eastern
Montana and Wyoming let the sun shine. The bitterly cold, dry air was so
clear the sunlight was painful.  Ice skating, rarely possible in the
normally mild temperatures, would be an exilarating thrill if one could
dress warmly enough.

I discovered in my teens that digging into Check Lists for ancestries,
building those family trees and planning several generations of
hybridizing
mischief was a wonderful exercise.
Part of my HYB experience every year, this is one in which I still
endulge,
much aided by Mike Lowe's pedigree attachments to many significant
historics
linked to the HIPS "Quick Fix" and Dykes Medal pages.

Imagination, planning, and anticipation of seeing what the seedling rows
would contain pulled me into the future.  This is the most significant
behavioral contribution to combat depression I have ever found.  Then,
the
summer exercise of maintaining the gardens contributed one of the other
significant counter-depression strategies--exercise!

Benefit?  You had better believe it!  That "pull into the future" is a
vital
part of my life, without which I think I would just curl up and die.

Neil Mogensen  z 7  Reg 4  western NC mountains

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