OT-BIO: Mickey Corley
- To: "INTERNET:i*@egroups.com"
- Subject: OT-BIO: Mickey Corley
- From: M* C*
- Date: Sat, 20 May 2000 07:48:11 -0400
I would like to take this space to thank John Jones for being so
informative in his 'welcome to iris talk'.
I would also like to say, I've learned many things from the e-mail messages
I've received in only a week - you are a very informative group of people.
Thank You.
I have been in love with iris (tall bearded) since I was a very small girl
being raised by my grandparents on a red clay hill in southern Oklahoma by
a Dutch grandmother who wanted to grow tulips but could only grow flags.
When I became old enough to visit our closest neighbor (a mile across the
pasture), I learned they were iris. Their daughter, Mary Ellen, was also
an only child and although older than I was just as lonesome. She spent
her days learning about many kinds of plants, including iris. When she
spent the unheard of price of $5.00 for an iris by the name Elmohr, my
grandmother was horrified. Mary Ellen began my education in the breeding,
etc. of iris and was very thorough and patient in her teachings. I took
many of Mary Ellen's iris home to my grandmother and she was finally
convinced iris were just as beautiful as tulips - perhaps BUYING iris was
OK - providing you had the money to spend.
After I married Arthur Corley, we moved into a one room garage apartment in
Bethany, Oklahoma. A lady, Mrs. Hopper, had a huge bed of iris, and I spent
many hours with her. About a year later, we bought our own home (also in
Bethany) and Mrs. Hopper gave me my first landscape plants - iris. I
learned of a lady who SOLD iris who lived a short distance away and
gradually began to purchase my own - they had NAMES.
Our family outgrew that home and my husband and I built a home on a
half-acre of property (still in Bethany, OK). Now I had all sorts of space
for iris and eventually by 1960 had over 100 NAMED varieties, plus the ones
that had no names.
When my children were all in school, I went to work and over the next 20
years the labels and some iris were lost. I had written descriptions plus
catalog pictures of them so in 1989, when I stopped working (out of the
home) I started re-identifying and labeling them from their description and
last know location in my yard.
Now 20 years later, I've pretty much re-identified most of them from 'last
known-location' and their travels around my yard; written descriptions,
catalog pictures I clipped when they were acquired, etc. I am having some
trouble with a few whites, purples/blues and yellows. I would like to
locate photos or the older iris (not really historic) on the web. I
accessed several websites since I accessed the AIS webpage and have been
able to VERIFY my re-identification of Wm. Setchel/Violet Harmony/Indian
Chief/Chantilly & Blue Rhythum.
This year was the year of the Iris here in Bethany until we had a raging
rain storm that blew them all over and shortened the season. Fortunately, I
had taken pictures of all of them and now have them accessable through my
computer and can enjoy them all year.
I promise not to write such a long message the next time but do have a
problem with talking too much and saying too little.
Mickey Corley (Mrs. Arthur J. Corley)
Bethany, OK USA - Zone 6/7 (we are right on the border of both zones)
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Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations.
Remember the good 'ol days
http://click.egroups.com/1/4053/0/_/486170/_/958823353/
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