Vintage Iris
Old Yellow Iris
Old Yellow is the only name I have for this Iris. I can’t be sure but clues point to it being from the 1940 – 1950s.
This Iris is responsible for turning me into a perennial gardener. I had no idea It was a chance meeting and an implusive act that sparked an infatuation that grew into a passion. It’s been around 15 years since we first met, yet Old Yellow remains the favorite in my perennial garden.
I foraged it from an old abandoned farm.. The house had burned sometime in the mid to late 50s. Near the ruins was a rock outcrop that had been transformed into a terraced garden. Someone had spent a lot of time and effort building stone walls where I found pennies embedded in the mortar dated 1940 and 1941. The only perennials that remained were a couple varieties of Sedum, some Hens and Chicks and one lone fan of the Iris.
I could see that the Iris wouldn’t last another season. Quack-grass had invaded and the Iris was giving up. I must have had a sentimental moment because I dug them up and brought them home. I started my first flower garden with those rescued plants. Up to that time a garden for me meant only one thing – vegetables. Before long I was conspiring with the other side forming perennial foraging parties. The creative aspect of creating a flower garden had captured my interest.
Each year the vegetable garden shrunk. Perennials, stone walks, boulders _ OH MY, Bee Balm, Iris, day lilies, phlox, black-eyed Susans, Sedums and Lupines had taken over. I was now addicted, I needed more and more. I planted as if I was growing cash crops. I still do.
I am only half kidding when I tell people I want to be a Landscape Artist but no one told me that I was supposed to use a brush. Even if someone had told me, it would not have mattered. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler. If I wanted to be a landscape artist I was going to have to do it the hard way. My brushes are a fork, shovel, and rake and use plants, stone and water as paint. My canvas is soil. My inspiration is nature. I’ll never become an artist though. But I’m doing what I love and I’ll never work another day in my life. I’m a gardener now. Something as simple as digging up a plant altered the path of my life.
Fifteen years later and now there are hundreds maybe even thousands of this Old Yellow Iris. I’ve planted them all over the nearby village and even sent some around the world. Now others are sharing them and I can’t help but feel good about resucing that lone survivor. We’ve both thrived. I can look back now and see that we rescued each other. We had help and thank all those who shared their knowledge and plants.
This is a medium height Iris and very vigorous. But the thing that really gets me is how long a blooming time it has. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say it will bloom for 2 weeks. It certainly isn’t an Iris that you would be afraid of missing the flowers if you went away for a week-end.
If anyone had an idea of what the name is I would appreciate finding out.
