MY BRUSH WITH IMMORTALITY

One fortuitous spring day in ’92, I happened to be admiring a gorgeous clump of ruffled pink iris in the garden of my daughter’s piano teacher. I asked her where she’d purchased the plant, remembering vaguely my grandmother’s purple flags from when I was a child. Nancy told me about a place called Hughes Iris Gardens, a few miles away. By now I was really interested, so of course I had to go and see for myself (and Nancy right along with me).

From the perspective of the small parking lot, at first I was totally unimpressed by the unpretentious surroundings…two huge fields. As we approached the first of those fields, however, I was unexpectedly transported into a new and exciting world: The world of iris. It was like stepping into a candy store! It seemed just about every color of the rainbow was represented in that field of flowers (the second field contained daylilies, which were not in bloom yet), and I wanted them all. We were given a large sheet of paper with a printed grid of sorts, pinpointing the exact position of each named cultivar. Horizontal and vertical paths crisscrossed the entire area so you could walk among the iris and get a close-up view of each one. The newer ones, which were up toward the front were, obviously, more expensive. The purchasing process consisted of telling the man in charge which irises you wanted, and he would then proceed to dig a rhizome or two for you on the spot. It was a new experience for me!

I came home with ELIZABETH, PACIFIC MIST, POST TIME, GOLD GALORE and JEAN HOFFMEISTER…a fairly good spread of color without spending the fortune I didn’t have.

I knew nothing about growing iris (heck, I wasn’t even a serious gardener yet…houseplants were my forte). Nevertheless, I hand-dug a small plot (about 3 or 4 feet square), removing the grass first (not a fun or easy job with only a shovel), and then tackling the tough clay beneath that covers much of Michigan. Over the next two or three years I added more, then heard that Hughes was going out of business. That last spring one of my acquisitions was IMMORTALITY. "This one reblooms in the fall," one gal at Hughes told me. I was intrigued, to say the least.

I still had not heard of the American Iris Society, so, of course, knew nothing about rebloomers and the fact that they needed a little extra attention to put on another show. Some of my Hughes iris disappeared over the next few years (the clay was the culprit, I’m certain, and I was still ignorant about iris culture), but to this day I still have GOLD GALORE, POST TIME and JEAN HOFFMEISTER from my very first visit to Hughes’s Gardens.

IMMORTALITY continued to grow and increase, and I gave lots of it away, but it still hadn’t rebloomed for me. I did put one piece of it in the front yard where I had a small triangular bed of daffodils, hyacinths and a few daylilies. That particular bed got sun all day long. Of course I tended to forget about that small, single clump of IMMORTALITY because my increasing iris ‘collection’ was in the backyard.

By this time (’97) I’d joined the American Iris Society and began to learn about rebloomers and iris culture in general – like clay soil doesn’t make for good drainage, which all iris need to thrive, and how to fertilize them. I wondered why my IMMORTALITY hadn’t rebloomed for me, even as I sent for catalogs from a few of the growers listed in the back of the AIS Bulletins and began to order a few more remontants.

One day in early September, I was weeding in the front yard, making my way to the triangular garden containing one single iris – my almost forgotten IMMORTALITY. I was thinking about nothing in particular except how hot and humid it was getting as the morning turned to early afternoon. It was just about time to go indoors…

That’s when I had my ‘brush’ with IMMORTALITY…. As my gaze traveled from the ground upward, toward the next nasty weed I needed to pull, a pure white iris blossom almost hit me in the face. I pulled back in reaction, and for a split second it didn’t register because it was so unexpected. The first coherent thought to flash through my mind was, What’s THIS? Several other blossoms were open, as well, and it dawned on me that IMMORTALITY was actually reblooming for me! I literally ‘danced’ across the yard to the front door of the house (my neighbors wonder about me sometimes, anyway) and called to my husband. "Bob…Bob!" I cried, unabashedly ecstatic. "IMMORTALITY is blooming again!"

Bob wasn’t sure what I meant, but good sport that he is, he came outside to take a look. I almost couldn’t believe it (and that’s part of the almost mystical appeal of reblooming iris), but of one thing you can be sure: After my ‘brush’ with IMMORTALITY, I was forever enthralled with rebloomers. They are my very favorite irises, and as my collection of them grows, I continue to learn more about them, grow more of them (in all classes now), and witness more of that magical rebloom every year!