Lovely Louisiana Iris

About twenty four years ago, I was in my pickup truck at the farm in Oberlin.  I was driving down a gravel road that is between Cottongin Road and Carrier Road.  Our family farm has land the borders the southern part of that road.  There's a rice irrigation well there that we called the "big well."  It was a 12" well that had a big engine powering it.  I can remember as a kid riding along with my dad as he checked the oil in that well engine.  It would run for 24 hours a day for weeks on end flooding the rice fields.  The sound the engine would put out was excruciatingly loud.  When we would check the engine at night, the exhaust manifold would be so hot, it would glow 'cherry-red.'

Back to that day 24 years ago.  I was driving my truck with the windows rolled down listening to some country music, I'm sure.  I had my elbow resting on the door as I observed my surroundings.  Then I spotted it.  There in the roadside ditch in front of what was an old home-place, was a big clump of Louisiana Iris growing in the muddy water.  They were blooming.  I'm not even a flower guy, but I couldn't help but admire the beauty.

I got the shovel out of the bed of my pickup and scooped up one bunch of the iris out of the ditch along with the mud and set it in back of my truck.  I had a plan.  We had just bought the land where we were going to build our home.  I figured it would be neat to start something so beautiful at my home that was originally in front of an old, old homeplace.  Why, generations of people could enjoy the beauty of the Louisiana Iris.  I would plant it in the lowest, wettest part of our yard.  It would be the gift that would keep on giving.  If I could keep it alive...

Twenty four years later...

That shovel-ful of iris has expanded around the water oak that I planted it near and fills the ditch.  I think it is happy there.  And the blooms!  Have you ever seen something so beautiful?  Every spring, they brighten the yard with royal purple and yellow blooms.

We have a back patio and a couple of years ago, Tricia moved a few of the iris in the bed that borders the patio and the house.  That was a great idea.  They thrive there.  Rain falls off the roof, fills the water catchment tub we have for the honeybees and then spills over.  The soil stays moist there, making it an ideal spot for the iris.  It gives us a good chance to admire the blooms as we sit on the patio.

Plants tend to bring back memories.  You can look at trees or shrubs or plants in the yard and remember...  Oh, that's the Confederate Jasmine that's from my grandmother's house.  Or, that's the Formosa Azalea from my other grandmother's house.  Every time I look at the Louisiana Iris, I think about seeing them growing in the ditch on that gravel road at the farm as I slowly drove by that day.  I'm glad I had my shovel and thought to bring one home. The lovely Louisiana iris is still going strong after all those years.