Re: Subject OT BIO James Harrison

Friends:
    Life is not long enough to read all the fine print, so I too did not 
understand that it was common practice for new participants in Iris Talk to 
submit a biography, but however retarded I may be, I have finally caught on 
and will share a bit about myself. Compared to Patricia Brooks, whose bio I 
have just read, I am thinking how easy my life is. But it has not always 
been. However, I will leave out the details between 1952 and 1992.
    I am 66 years old, and live in NC. Like Gaul, all North Carolina is 
divided into three parts. Jim Gibbons lives on the coast, the beginning of 
the "sand hills," which extend inland for about 200 miles, and it can be very 
mild there. Lloyd Zubbrrig (sp? with apologies) of Durham lives in the next 
200 mile wide belt called the Piedmont which is more or less 1000 feet above 
sea level, generally zone 7, which overall is mild with ample rainfall, but 
can experience occasional severe cold, occasional drought, and can be very 
hot in mid summer. I grew up in that belt just west of Charlotte. I now live 
In Asheville, which is in a 2000'  valley west of the Blue Ridge and east of 
the Smokies, generally mild and a temperate rain forest. It can occasionally 
be extreme cold but is almost never hot. 90 degrees on a sunny July afternoon 
is not uncommon, but we expect to cool at least to 60 during the night. I 
know of one occasion -6F for a few nights, but rare. It snows, sometimes a 
lot, but with afternoons in January and February going up to the 50s and 60s, 
it does not linger. Please  visit but do not come to live here.
    When I  was a teen ager in the Piedmont in the late 40s, two first 
cousins, once removed, who had an Iris garden of at least two acres, gave me 
a start of some of the best iris of the day. The "men-folk" farmed and the 
"women-folk" did white collar work in town. They even did a bit of 
hybridizing. All my family were practical, functional gardeners growing 
nearly all of the vegetables needed to set a good table, and flowers to 
decorate it as well. I tended my iris garden till I went away to college, and 
then it was dispersed among the rest of the family and neglected.
    Forty years later I moved back to NC, but to the Mountains and not the 
Piedmont. Though I have gardened all along in the meantime where ever I have 
lived, I have never established an iris garden, but I have always intended to 
when  I thought I was sufficiently settled. Beginning in August 1999 I 
decided that time had come.
    I have a wonderful home on 6/10 Acre. I am happy to say that I am 
surrounded by some beautiful trees: Oak of several species, Sweet Gum, Maple, 
Sassafras, Dogwood, Carolina  Silverbell, Birch, beech, Japanese Magnolia, 
Pines, Spruce, Wild Cherry and more.Do I have shade? There are also some 
shrubs that I would not part with: Rhododendron, Laurel, and Azaleas. So I am 
looking for those spots of sun, 60% sun, 50% sun,.40 % sun where I might 
establish an iris bed.
    Having grown tall bearded before, they are not my priority. I have even 
rescued some iris I believe are descendants of my original garden having been 
in the custody of an aunt. I have another friend who bought the home of a 
very sophisticated gardener near Brevard, and I have gotten a start of a wide 
variety of Tall Bearded and Siberian there.
    I am very curious to discover what I have from these sources.
    But I am most interested in species. I have bought some Spuria and 
Louisiana, and have picked up some pseudacorus.  A small crested grows 
prolifically here.
    I have planted more than 60 pots of seed from the species society. Many 
have germinated but none are old enough yet to bloom. A few of you have send 
me some clones.
    So I have started a new adventure.
    My house is in a post WW II development, fortunately the setting never 
destroyed the primeval forest and has large lots and lots of nice plantings. 
As I walk my 80 pound giant border collie mutt, Maxwell McDog, I discover 
that there are at least 20% of the homes who have some iris. So I am 
planning, come late winter which will be my second winter here, to invite all 
families with iris to my house on a Sunday afternoon to establish the "Oak 
Forest Iris Society."  I am going to have far more seedlings than I can 
provide a proper home for so I am looking for some foster parents. I am 
having a great time.
    I have mostly been a lurker on this list, and probably will continue to 
be for the most part because there are so many people who have more 
experience and specific knowledge than I do about iris. 
    I have asked several people for information and accepted a few generous 
offers for some cultivars and seed from other members, and have always tried 
to provided a self addressed label and postage when I have accepted those 
offers.
    However, rarely have I found such a circle of mutually encouraging, 
supportive and generous persons. I am a professional person with scientific 
training, attempting to retire. I have been amazed and gratified by the 
wealth of horticultural,  biological, genetic and agricultural knowledge 
represented among this circle. But most of all by the sprit of generosity and 
kindness.
    Frankly I think the list is great and I have no wish to change it. It 
functions quite well. Nothing is perfect. Let's not tamper, but leave it 
along and keep the flow of information coming.
    As far as the archives are concerned, however, I do think it would be a 
mizpah -- is that the right word? -- if someone, surely a different editor 
for each topic, would distill the information about borers, scorch, rot, 
hybridization, germination of seed, etc. etc. etc., into one concentrated 
topical listing so that the search would not be difficult. Of course there 
would be disagreements and needs for revision, but I wish I had an on line 
access for some problem solving that would be even more comprehensive and 
more up to date that Bill Shear's book, and that would be hard to beat.
    I do not have any Iris seed at this time that would be of interest to any 
one. I do, however, have some seed for Black Gum, a beautiful native tree 
which bears a purple drupe in the fall with a taste that convinces you it 
would be an anti-oxidant; I have a good many Osage Oranges, not a native of 
NC, but should be sufficient to give folk a start if they are curious and 
followed the discussion in mid summer, and finally Linden, or the "Lime 
Tree," referenced in the Arthurian Legends, another beautiful shade three 
with delicious scented small blooms in the spring --not a citrus and hardy.

James Harrison
Asheville, NC

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