Re: OT: Humor: Black Iris:

At 08:22 PM 7/7/99 -0700, you wrote:
>From: starlord@QNET.COM (Slc.Dennis Bishop)
>
>>From: "Dorothy A. Stiefel" <daf10@cornell.edu>
>>
>>>that BLACK TIE AFFAIR is the blackest, and some say that BEFORE THE
>>>STORM is the blackest.-
>>
>>Had both of these blooming in the garden this year, and to my eyes, BEFORE
>>THE STORM was darker.

I've found BEFORE THE STORM to be disappointing, difficult to raise, increase, and with substandard bloom stalks and flowers. If I wasn't taking upon myself the task of maintaining a Dykes display garden, I'd drop it from the inventory in a heartbeat.

Superstition, on the other hand...very nice. Frankly now that I've seen a number of attempts to go from purple to black, I think the failures along the way, are often more beautiful flowers than inky black. A glow of deep purple against that black background is spectacular.

BTW, I mentioned, satirically, the quest for the black iris in a detective spoof currently in Old State of Franklin magazine, with a nice picture of Superstition on the cover, and laments about "Iris Schwartz, the fickle flower whom fate made the dark lady of my existence." The magazine is 50 cents, I don't know what it comes to with postage, but e-mail tamarac@greene.xtn.net (Tamara Chapman) to find out.

More than one person has asked since then whether it's true that I have a black iris tattooed on my right bicep (I don't), and one has even rolled back my sleeve to see a Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) instead ... but that's another story.


James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN
hirundo@tricon.net
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