Some years back, My grandaughter and I were playing in the dirt in my flower garden ( without her m…

[dean meason]

Some years back, My grandaughter and I were playing in the dirt in my flower garden ( without her mothers permission of course. It is a grampas' responsibility to do such things) and while pulling some weeds from around an iris, she ask " will you make me an iris the color of my dress" without hesitation, grampa replied "sure". Why did I say that? Caitlyn was 3 at the time, she is now 18 and a budding young jounalism student. So began my retirement hobby, hybridizing iris. The color ,she informs me is not blue nor purple, it is periwinkle.and its name is Caitlyn.
Each new iris is unique and has stand alone beauty. Iris have tradtionaly been given strange names for even stranger reasons. Cities, states, bridges, laws and almost everything is named for men. The message has been "ladies ,you are unimportant" So, all my irises have been named for grandaughters, nieces, daughters, mothers, motherinlaws, and my wife. To all of these ladies I say "you are important, you are worth honoring.
I have made one exception which is posted above. This iris, when first I saw it seemed to me to be the ugliest thing I had ever seen and so I hid it way over in the corner where it would not be seen.Two old time iris lovers did spot it and said it reminded them of one their mother and they loved it. How often do we discard a priceless gift as being unworthy?The iris is named Bill W.

[Ed Howes]

Honor the light, rub the lamp, make a wish, set a goal, let it fly.

Blessings X 10,

Ed

[dean meason]

" Mirror Mirror on the wall. Who's the fairest of us all?"
The world has been given a great gift, it's measure has not yet been taken. My hope is that we continue to honor the light and not the lamp.

[Junnie Starshine]

Dean, to see this Iris photo, and to read the first lines of your blog, I interpreted this lovely flower as wearing a beautiful dress, ecru on the top and flairing purples & lavenders in the flying skirt. And oh, how lovily does the ecru cape capture the sunlight. So tell me why Bill W. wears such a dress?

[Alexa]

Well, they have named Hurricanes after women! lol.
I LOVE Bill W. This is great... :)