Re: iris attrition list

From: <Irisborer@aol.com>

I find this a fascinating subject..... why things stay (and why they are
banished) in our gardens.  My criteria are as follows:

It can stay if:

1.  It lives
2.  It blooms (because anything that blooms steals my heart)
3.  It doesn't bloom (because then I fantasize about it's potential)
4.  It doesn't bloom for years and years (because then I'm challanged)
5.  It was given to me by someone (one NEVER gives away a gift)
6.  It belonged to someone I love who is gone (my grandmother, my father, my
aunt) because it's a way to keep them alive since everytime the plant
performs, I remember the person who grew it.
7.  I acquired the plant under special circumstances
8.  Someone admired it (and they also get a piece when I can)
9.  It lives
10.  It lives

Reasons a plant undergoes 'rightsizing'  (I work in a hospital that has become
a corporation with all the fancy distancing language...used to be
"downsizing".... before that "laid off" ....originally "fired")

1.  It does not live (corporate-speak for 'it died')
2.  I've had it for 10 years and it finally gave up a bloom 
3.  It expires
4.  It's butt-ugly and reeks to boot (never happened - but I want to keep that
criteria alive)
5.  It is no longer a viable entity
6.  It is a highly-touted plant that does not live up to... or even
approach... it's PR - only happened once - with a daylily called BLACK-EYED
STELLA.
7.  It dies.... and I replaced it twice with the same iris and they die too.
8.  I've grown it for years.... I need to redo that part of the garden and the
club iris sale is coming up..... I may (or may not) dig the whole clump.

So.... as you can see, my attrition criteria is very lenient and is generally
up to the plant itself.  And, before anyone believes the "Stately Guest
Estates" legend.... I live in a little Village and have a small yard that I
have to shoehorn plants in at this point.  But I love every single one and get
sentimental when I dig.

Kathy Guest
E. Aurora, NY... who only took 2 entire clumps to yesterday's iris
sale/auction - and that's because they belonged to the club and I had to.  Oh
yes, I did send all of ROSEMARY'S DREAM because I've grown it for so long and
I have something that needs her spot.

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