3 years and now Iris

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In three years after planting some Iris I was given I had not one bloom. I made the decision that I would no longer chastise myself for answering a freecycle or craigslist posting and driving almost an hour away for FREE flowers that wouldn't even bloom once. This year I would make the pain go away by saying to heck with the "supposed" Iris that would soon find a new home in the compost bin because they had to be duds. Well a strange thing caught my eye when I was cleaning up the flower beds. Dare I say that there was a budlike growth on one of the plants? Fine! I would let this supposed plant with his "bud"; stay for another week but his brethren (the other plants) would still have to be moved to another location to make room for anything else but straight green spikey leaves. As you can see from the pictures this bud did indeed turn into a bloom.  Today of all days too, and this bloom is ENORMOUS! I have not been so happy about one non gardening day bloom since ..... I can't even say exactly, but it was probably when there was actual flowers then fruit on the gooseberry bushes. [almost chucked them in the bin too] Anyway I digress, blooms on flowers just makes a day 100 times better. As I get older I'd rather have them in a pot or growing out of the ground than in a vase. There seems to be less finality and at least a hope for witnessing future displays of natural beauty. Already I am hoping that tomorrow will include more Iris blooms in my garden. My one Iris has taught me to conserve/utilize my time and energy wisely so that I can become a super bloom that will be appreciated for more than a day.

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