Re: REB:Report for KY

Rosalie and Betty,

I spent five and a half years on the WV-KY border in the Williamson, WV and
South Williamson, KY area while in service as a priest of the Episcopal
Church.  Driving around and visiting in the Pike, Martin and adjoining
Kentucky counties I can say that the cultural and economic conditions in the
Eastern KY mountain coal areas are not where lovers of iris are likely to
live.  You aren't very likely to get rebloom reports from those areas,
although the climate is rather mild and iris do thrive there when planted.

It is not until one gets up near the Ohio river areas and into the Lexington
buegrass country or substantially west of those coal counties that one begins
to find economic and cultural conditions where iris are more plentiful and
likely to occur.

I did see spectacular rhododendrons and azaleas in the coal county areas,
indicating the soils to be strongly acid.  Small garden plots are devoted to
vegetables and tobacco as an economic boost to a family's income in an area
unique and often painful in its history.

I met and came to love the remarkable people in the area I describe.  The
history and conditions are unique in the U. S.  That history includes the
Hatfield-McCoy story, the West Virginia "Mine Wars, " and the testing ground
in which unionization first took place.  None of this left much room for the
gentler side of culture.  There is an enormous residue of pain, violence and
unresolved grief in the general area.  The folk still resident there are tough
survivors for the most part.  They have my greatest appreciation and
admiration for their welcome and willingness to share their lives with my
family.

Neil Mogensen  z7 western NC

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