Re: Visiting Irishaven

From: "heather & bernard pryor" <irishaven@pip.com.au>



>From: Patsiris@aol.com
>
>Dear Heather,
>>Do you allow visitors?  It sounds like a dream come true to me.   I am
really looking forward to meeting you in 2000 in Dallas.  Please bring
slides!
>                                                         Pat N.>>

Dear Pat and Shirlee,

Many thanks for the kind compliments.  It is the best that I can do until we
work how to fax people around the globe!!  Our little nursery is not opened
to the public.  This is for several reasons:

  1) We have planted our iris very intensively so that we can pack in as
many as possible into the cultivated area. In bloom season the rows of iris
have their bloom spikes leaning out over our pathways, which makes walking
down them a bit like a scene from a Tarzan movie.  You know the stuff -
gently pushing you way through the waist high bushes etc. We have about
2,000 plants per row at present and the 35 rows are "chockers" (full to the
brim).

 2)We KNOW where the paths are so can walk with some confidence during bloom
season.  To expect visitors to hack their way through would be unfair, and
would also result in lots of losses of spikes etc.  We know which iris to
walk around very carefully and which ones are"spade jobs" so can be treated
with less care.

 3) To open to the public you need to tell everyone where you are!!!!    We
do not live on-site.    The garden is surrounded on three sides by houses
with the fourth side facing a busy road.  The garden is camoflaged behind
thick sarlon and this has done a good job so far in hiding the garden to a
large extent.  We give our neighbours lots of flowers and they exercise
their pets on our land during the day so that any interested passerby can
see that the garden is part of "their place" (if they can see it at all).
To date (and we have been there for five seasons now) we have had no thefts
of plants or damage from envious gardeners.  We don't even accept deliveries
of garden products or fertilizers there - we get things delivered to our
home and then trundle it there by car ourselves.

 4) To open to the public you need to have well made, clear paths,
wheelchair access areas, toilets, telephones, carparking arrangements, etc.
and also be there all the time in case someone wants to come in and "spend
an hour having a look while waiting for Aunty Joan's dentist appointment to
be completed" etc. etc. etc.  This costs money that we prefer to spend on
the iris!!

 5) We like to keep our garden private, and invite those that we want to
share it with us.  We are not wishing to appear superior, particular or
arrogant - we just like our garden to be a special place for us.   Bernard
and I have no human children, so the iris garden is where OUR family lives.

However, if folk that we know are travelling some distance to visit us, or
share our love of Iris, then that is a different story.  Yes, we will be
bringing slides to 2000. To entertain you in the meantime I will do my best
to share the garden with fellow iris-talk friends.

Cheers for now,  Heather P.     irishaven@pip.com.au



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