OT-BIO Greg Condiff

Hello, all. This is my introduction. My name is Greg Condiff, I live and
garden in Christiana, Delaware (Zone 7). I searched out this list
because a friend gave me some re-blooming iris and I wanted to get more
information.

I have a lot of irises in my garden, but they are all gifts from friends
when I bought my house 2 years ago, so I don't know any of the names.
Most are bearded, although I have some JI and reticulata. The Christiana
river flows thru my property, and there are lovely wild yellow irises on
the banks in the late spring.

My favorite ones, though are because of their history. My mother was a
close friend of an opera singer of small renown who was a student of
Rosa Ponselle, an opera singer of great renown. Rosa was fond of giving
my mother's friend gifts, and among them were divisions of her irises.
They have royal purple falls and standards that are the palest lavender.
They have a fragrance that reminds me of chocolate.

Although horticulture is an avocation, I did attend Delaware Tech's
horticulture program and studied under David Schied. I was a good friend
also of Hal Bruce, late curator of plants at the Henry Francis duPont
Winterthur Museum and Gardens.  So while not a professional, I feel
lucky to have been able to (hopefully) absorb some of the encyclopedic
knowledge of theirs.

I'm going to spend time at the Iris Web site and look for answers to
some of my questions.  In the mean time, I'll probably "lurk" on the
list until I get a feel for the tenor of things.

Greg
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index