Larry's iris give away

14 years ago

I know this is a bit long but it's important to me that everyone know where these tubers came from.

When I was a young girl growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, there was a garden that was just stunning. I can remember as far back as junior high admiring the garden as the school bus drove by this home. As the years went by I would gawk each time I had the opportunity to drive by this garden.

Years later when I bought my own home, I had to drive by this garden daily on my way to and fro work. I would sit and wrench my neck trying to see more into the yard and what was blooming. I would see an older gentleman working the garden from time to time.

Over the last ten years, I noticed that the garden started to slip a bit and figured the man must be getting up in years. I remembered him being "older" when I was a teenager.

I recently had the honor of meeting this gardener, his name is Larry and he's 83 years old now. He was at one time(1995) the president of the historical iris preservation society and he and his wife were iris judges for years.

Larry invited me over to walk his gardens with him, it is still a sight to see. He showed me some pictures of his iris' in bloom and we had a nice conversation about gardening. He told me he had been diagnosed with parkinsons disease and would be selling his home and leaving his garden behind.

It's so sad! This home was a show place in it's day.

I told Larry how I had always admired his garden from a distance and he joked "you didn't stop to help though, did ya" He then said, did you bring a shovel and told me to start digging particular plants.

A few days later I brought Larry a nice lunch as a thank you and he told me about the new owner moving the carriage house soon. I know they will have to drive over his iris bed to do this. I panicked and started digging to save Larry's iris'.

The problem is, I don't have a home for all of them. I just couldn't let them be ruined and thought I'll figure something out.

So, here I am! I decided that I would offer these for postage and a thank you card for Larry letting him know where his iris will be growing. I think it would be so nice to get one growing in every state.

A piece of Larry's garden can live on.... in ours!

I just mailed the first two tubers today and I figure three dollars and a brown paper envy will cover the postage and a delivery conf# to get the iris tuber back to you.

NO THANK YOU CARD FOR LARRY ..... NO TUBER!!!

I already have the following states covered by members of the garden web.

Iowa

california

Illinois

georgia

minnesota- sent today to diego1991

louisiana

new york

michigan

texas- sent today to susantexoma

pennsylvania

new hampshire

utah

N. carolina

washington